


going the distance

by hey_mickey



Series: Mickey's Umbrellas [6]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Conversations, Diego has His Comic Powers, Gen, I Heard A Rumor There's No Incest, Kid! Diego will Mention not Breathing a Couple of Times, Mild Language, Mild Talk of Drug Use, Past meets future, Post-Season/Series 01, Temporary Character Death, Time Travel, We Hate Reginald, With Your Younger Selves, no beta we die like ben
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2020-10-24 10:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20704358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hey_mickey/pseuds/hey_mickey
Summary: After the events of the Icarus Theater, the Hargreeves are thrust into the past-more specifically- their past. Arriving only six months after Ben's death, they now have to deal with both their overbearing abusive father and their curious younger selves, all while trying to become the family they never were in the first place. Not to mention their little stunt put them all in the Commisson's line of fire.Time travel sure is a bitch.





	1. arrival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point I should really stop coming up with new WIPs but this one grabbed me and dragged me down to hell with it, so here I am!
> 
> Inspired by a fic on Fanfic.com called "Unnumbered Future Selves"

It’s a gentle spring morning. Nothing out of the ordinary. Not one hair out of place, no screaming children, no crashing noises to be heard from the lonely mansion one square block wide. 

It’s the most peaceful the house has been since the passing of Number Six, Ben, about six months ago. It’s normal to hear the children’s sobs late into the night and the dizzy laughter of Klaus, the screaming and fighting and all the normal chaos that comes with the children since the funeral.

So naturally, Pogo is suspicious.

He’s spent the better half of the morning checking around corners and investigating the tiniest noises and squeaks, determined to find something out of the ordinary. Instead, all he found were creaky boards and a dead mouse.

Pogo’s on edge. He needs some fresh air. He steps out of the small door to the courtyard, hoping for some peace in the shadow of Ben’s statue. The wind whistles gently around him as he plops down on the small bench in the corner and he shakes his head, trying to get the sharp noises of the wind out of his ears. When the high-pitched whining noise only gets louder, he sticks his finger in his ear, attempting to fish out the irritating bug that is now giving him a headache. It doesn’t work so he tilts his head back, looking towards the sky.

There’s a vortex there.

Pogo sighs in relief at the appearance of the literal crack in space-time.

At least his gut feeling wasn’t wrong.

He watches the rip in the sky as it glows blue, growing brighter and brighter by the second and distantly wonders if he’s supposed to inform Reginald about the situation, but when he makes a move to get up and go get his master, he finds that he can’t move, transfixed in place by the sheer power of the rip. Pogo sighs.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the rip is gone, closing up with a sharp click. And where the rip had been, there are now a clique of the most oddly assorted people on the planet. They are facing away from him, so Pogo silently waits as they stumble to their feet, disoriented.

Then one of them faceplants into the floor, the others too distracted by their surroundings to catch them as they fell.

“Shit!” One of them says loudly, “Five, you ok?”

There’s no response as one of the figures follows suit, falling to their hands and knees and retching. Pogo’s eyebrows lift even higher.

“Hey, we don’t look like Kidz Bop!” says one of them cheerfully, turning around to face Pogo. His face falls as he see Pogo there, watching them and his arms fall to his sides, “Pogo?”

“Master Klaus?” Pogo responds, able to guess merely on personality, appearance and overall strangeness of the outfit he’s wearing. Bowling shoes? Sure. A Hawaiian shirt? Check. Dog Tags? Why not?

“Hey man, how you been?” Klaus says waving a hand with the word “Hello,” tattooed onto it. It’s ironic and bizarre, “You look different from the last time I saw you.”

There’s something else in the back of his words that makes Pogo think that the last time this Klaus saw him wasn’t a good thing. He coughs politely, “Master Klaus. How did you get here?”

“It’s a long story,” Klaus tells him with an indifferent shrug, “Can we stay here for a bit until..” He glances behind him at the other three visible figures who Pogo can now assume are the rest of the Umbrella Academy, “We get this all sorted out?”

Pogo sighs again, it feels like he’s doing quite a bit of that this morning, “Of course, Master Klaus. You’re always welcome here.”

“Excellent!” Klaus says with a clap, “We could use a place to crash for a while.” He flails an arm behind him, gesturing to the others who have surrounded Pogo at this point. Pogo’s eyes dart from person to person, taking in each of them until his eyes land on the person cradled in Luther’s arms. 

“Is Miss Vanya alright?” He asks, curiously, taking in the pure white suit she was wearing. It really didn’t seem like something she would wear, she was never one for showing off. Luther shot her a worried glance before nodding, “She’ll be ok.”

Pogo leaned on his cane a bit in an attempt to get rid of the stiffness in his leg, “Very well, I will show you all to a room.”

He almost turns around to guide them to a small guest room until he can figure out how to tell Reginald that his adult children are here but then he spots the second unconscious figure on Diego’s back.

“Number Five?”

Diego barely spares the boy in question a glance before he responds, “Long story, Pogo.”

Allison raps him harshly on the shoulder and he turns to look at her. She lifts a small notebook that Pogo hadn’t noticed before, practically shoving it in Diego’s face. It reads, “We need rest.”

“Yea,” Diego agrees, turning back to Pogo, “We should sleep.”

The others murmur their assent and Pogo decides that the most rational course of action is to simply take them to a room away from the children and inform Reginald about their arrival. The adult children follow him without complaint and practically collapse into the beds he offers them. It’s honestly a miracle that they didn’t run into any of the children on their trek up the stairs. 

Pogo can’t help the smile on his face as he watches them curl around each other, Vanya and Five in the center of the bed, the others sprawled around them. Seems like the Umbrella Academy will be ok.

Reginald would be pleased.

Pogo closes the door and heads off to go find his master, wondering how Reginald will handle this new curveball.

He’s heading up the stairs toward the office of his master when he sees Klaus, (the younger one) heading down the stairs. In his mind, he compares Klaus to his future self and is quite surprised to see the similarities there. Klaus waves at him as he passes by with the hand that Pogo now knows will be engraved with Hello.

“Hey Pogo! What’re you up to today?” Klaus says his eyes twinkling with curiosity. It doesn’t look like he’s high, which is starting to become a usual thing for him. Pogo grins back in what he hopes is a calm smile, “Just going to speak with your father. Is he in his office?”

“Think so?” chirped Klaus, taking the rest of the steps two at a time, “See you later Pogo!”

“Goodbye, Klaus,” Pogo replies, raising his hand in a salute as Klaus disappears down the hallway. Their conversation a bit brief for his liking, Pogo heads back up the stairs to talk to Reginald. He wonders what’s happening with Klaus, since the boy has been an absolute mess since the death of Ben, in fact, the only time he’s seen him smile for the past six months was when he was high. 

As he finally reaches the door leading to Reginald’s office, he comes to the realization that he doesn’t have to wonder about the futures of the children anymore, because they’re already here.

* * *

Luther waits till Pogo leaves them alone, heading to go inform their father of their presence. Swallowing the lump in his throat at the appearance of the recently deceased Pogo, Luther turns to his siblings ready to talk, but Diego speaks before he can get a word in.

“This is the worst place we could’ve ended up.” He hisses through gritted teeth, “Dad’s still alive and Ben is still dead.”

Luther tries not to grimace when Diego spits out their father’s name as though it’s poison on his tongue. Klaus raises a hand from where he’s sat down on the bed near Vanya’s limp arm, “Ben says he’s ok with being dead still.”

Right, Ben is here. And Klaus is the only one who could see him and talk to him. Luther blinks tiredly, recalling the shocked and happy smile on Ben’s face during the fight at the Icarus Theater. 

They are all together again. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben and Vanya. Just like when they were kids, wait..

“Didn’t Five say there was a possibility we could turn out like him?” He asks glancing at his sleeping older-younger brother. “Then why didn’t we?”

“No idea,” Diego responds, his eyes also going to Five’s slumbering form, “Maybe the little bastard was wrong for once.”

Klaus leans back, resting his back on the bed, “He’s gonna be pissed about this when he wakes up.” He gives Five’s hair an affectionate ruffle, “Probably start cursing a ton.”

The three of them fall into silence, all thinking their own thoughts. There’s not much to say to each other that wouldn’t break the already thin strings of patience they’re all holding and Luther can feel the pressure behind his ears. The events of almost an hour ago are a heavy weight between the whole family, Vanya’s gleaming white powers still flash brightly behind his eyelids and the shock of the moon coming towards them at high speed is still ingrained in his memory. 

They have a long way to go to recover from all that.

He’s in the middle of debating whether right now is the best time to address the burning fiery elephant in the room in the shape of the apocalypse when Allison lifts her notepad. 

All three of them turn toward her, giving her their fullest attention as though she’d rumored them to do so. Her notepad is practically covered in hastily-written words and they have to squint to see the thing she’s trying to say.

“Five said that we need to fix Vanya before we can go back. If we fix her then the apocalypse won’t happen and we can go home.”

Her auburn eyes are misty and soft as she gazed at her brothers and Luther is painfully reminded of her sobbing in the phone booth as she tried to talk to her daughter. But Claire isn’t here anymore, she’s back in the fiery devastation of the world they left behind and Luther is met with a stab of sadness he’s never felt before, remembering the small peppy voice through the phone. Klaus draws Allison into a hug. Diego looks away, staring way too pointedly at a bedpost. 

Luther clears his throat, determination filling his bones, “We’ll help her.” He tells Allison, mostly for her sake rather than an actual truthful statement, but the small smile at the corner of her lips is enough. 

Klaus is slowly rubbing Allison’s back when he lets out a sharp exhale, “What about mini-us?”

“Mini-us?” echoes Diego, looking away from the bedpost he’s trying to burn a hole into. 

“Yea,” Klaus says, hands still on Allison, “Our past selves. Mini-us.”

Diego curses to himself, turning his head back to the bedpost, “I forgot about that.”

“What about Dad?” Allison writes. All three of her brothers pause, glancing at each other with multiple different emotions cascading down their faces. 

“We aren’t telling him shit,” Diego snarls, “He doesn’t deserve that.”

“Maybe he could…” Luther says meekly, stopping when Diego’s fury-filled glare stops on him, “No he can’t. He put Vanya on those pills. There’s no way we’re telling him what happened.”

“He’s still going to ask,” Klaus pointed out, raising his hands as Diego’s glare turned its fire on him, “Hey man, I agree with you. But we randomly appeared in his backyard. There’s no way he’s not going to interrogate us.”

“Ben says that we should just tell him the bare minimum,” Klaus continues after a minute, sounding tired, “At least enough to keep him away from us while we sort this out.”

Allison is already nodding, and even Diego seems to agree with their dead brother’s statement. Luther bites his lip, debating whether he should tell Dad or not. The others look at him with a mixture of expressions, pressure from Diego, hollow-eyed contemplation from Klaus and sympathy from Allison.

He groans, rubbing a hand across his face, “Fine we don’t tell Dad.”

They all nod and Luther can’t help but think that this is the fastest consensus they’ve come to in the last week. Allison moves, rustling the covers. Her hand snakes around Vanya’s head and she begins to brush their sister’s hair with her fingers. She looks exhausted, Luther notices, her hair is askew and she appears ready to drop. 

They sit in silence until one by one, they begin to drift off to sleep, their dreams plagued by visions of their sister’s white glow and the fires that seared the surface of the earth.

* * *

Grace is busy cooking food with Diego in the kitchen when she’s called up to Reginald’s office. There’s no announcement over the loudspeaker or anything, but a simple tug in her code that tells her that Reginald needs her for something.

It’s a bit bizarre that he didn’t announce it over the loudspeakers, since he’s had no qualms about doing that before, but she's not allowed to question his methods anyways. With a quick apology to Diego and a promise that she’ll be back to finish their cookies soon, she heads rapidly over to the office of the man who made her, hoping this isn’t something as serious as her code would have her believe it is. 

She enters the office with her usual pep, surprised to see both Reginald and Pogo in there. They turn to look at her with serious expressions and a small warning goes off in her head, that this is a serious matter. 

“Grace,” Reginald addresses her, “The children are here.”

A couple of noises click in her head as she tries to make sense of his words, “They are always here, sir.”

He shakes his head as though she’s one of the children being berated for not using their powers correctly, “No, the future versions of the children are here in a guest room.”

A wild pulse of something she can’t identify thrums where her heart would be, “Future?”

“Indeed,” Reginald rubs his monocle, thinking, “We are to host them until they can figure out how to get back to their own time. I’m putting you in charge of them until that happens.”

Grace’s smile is genuine, “Great! I’ll get right on it then.” She makes to leave the room, ready to go see what her children will become. 

“Grace,” Reginald says coldly. 

She stops and turns back to him, her smile remaining plastered on her face, “Yes?”

“The children will be informed of this development tonight at dinner, but until then I want you to keep both sets of children away from each other. Is that clear?”

“Of course!” she said obediently, turning away from him and towards the future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: The Younger Hargreeves are some fucked up kids, the end.


	2. kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the kid's corner, Diego and Klaus have a fight.
> 
> In the adult's, Vanya wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a bit too long so I had to split it, sorry about that!
> 
> TW: Kid! Diego has a not breathing issue, he mentions it a couple of times.

Diego waits by the stove, his arms crossed across his chest and a grouchy feeling in his gut. He’s supposed to be relaxing this morning, making cookies with Mom, something he’s started doing a lot now that Ben…

He needs the distraction, a small moment of peace for his constantly aching heart and heavy eyelids. Making cookies is mechanical and easy, something he didn’t think about and simply did. Diego wants, no he  _ craves,  _ the need to not think right now, since the slightest memory or thought will send him downwards into a place he hates more than his father himself.

Mom’s never taken this long to get back from a meeting with Dad. And Diego’s getting restless, feet scuffling on the floor and hands playing with one of the knives strapped to his ridiculous Academy uniform. It’s only after he’s stood there for a couple of minutes that he comes to the stark realization that he hasn’t taken a breath for a while. The walls begin to close in on him, closer and closer and closer and Diego can’t breathe..

He’s the Kraken, he can breathe underwater so why can’t he do that now? Diego wheezes, eyes darting back and forth, looking for an escape and as his desperate eyes chance over the door, he sees the thin, lanky form of one of his brothers.

An escape.

Diego needs to not think. 

He follows his brother into the living room, hands on his knives and itching for a distraction. Klaus whirls around when he hears the noises of Diego’s angry feet behind him. 

“Hey, Diego!” Klaus says cheerfully, unaware that he’s been caught in Diego’s line of fire, “You seem a bit miffed.”

Diego pulls himself up as close as he can to Klaus’s face, making sure Klaus is aware of the full two inches separating their eyes from being level with each other, “I am a bit miffed.” He can feel the spittle on his lips. Klaus’s bright green eyes go wide and a grin twists its way onto his face, “What for?”

“You.” Diego jabs a finger into his brother’s boney chest, “You miff me.” He’s aware of how ridiculous the phrasing is, but the seething red desire to get his mind off the unending pain clouds any frame of judgement he might’ve had under any other circumstances.

“You’re leaving again, aren’t you? Going out to get drunk or high or whatever the fuck you’re doing with whoever the fuck you’re doing it with when you should be here, Klaus! Here with the rest of us!” Diego grabs the front of Klaus’ shirt, searching his slightly misty eyes, “But, you aren’t here, are you? Just like you weren’t when Ben died. Because you’re just a c-c-c-o-ow..” Diego stutters on the last word, staring into Klaus’ horrified and oddly sympathetic expression. 

Hot angry tears drip down his face and he shoves Klaus away, as hard as he can, before spinning on his heel and running back to his room, cookies forgotten. The only sounds he can hear are his own sputtering sobs and the loud slam of his door as he collapsed into his room. 

He’s angry, he’s unreasonably angry at everything and everyone. Diego’s mad at Mom for not making cookies with him, He’s mad at Klaus for running, He’s mad at Allison for drowning her sorrows in makeup and teen drama, He’s mad at Luther for pretending as if everything’s ok and He’s mad at Vanya for sobbing late into the night as if she could’ve done anything about it. 

But mostly, he’s mad at himself. He doesn’t know why and it only fuels his anger more. 

Diego screams as loud as he can, finally finding his voice, just long enough to let it all out. As soon as his screaming fit ends, he feels a fresh wave of embarrassment and shame at how he spoke to Klaus. He bits his lips as another fresh wave of tears fall down his face, the taste of iron stains his tongue. 

He’s the worst brother ever. He couldn’t help Ben. He can’t relate to Luther or Allison or Vanya. He couldn’t stop Five. He can’t talk to Klaus, he can barely talk at all.

Diego can feel another wave of desperate anger hit his body and he buries his face in his pillow, choking on his tears and blood. 

He doesn’t need to breathe anyways.

* * *

Grace opens the door to the guest room that Pogo has directed her to, her heart in her throat and a smile on her face. Excitement isn’t really a thing she can feel, but the current mechanism controlling her is about as close as she can get. In her hands, she carries some leftovers from the previous night’s dinner and some waters. She knows her children, even if they are much older, they still need some fuel. 

It still takes her breath away when she sees the pile of slumbering bodies in the room. One of them shifts slightly when they see her come in, their eyes opening slightly and if Grace could cry, she would right now, because she recognizes Diego instantly. 

Her older son carefully pulls himself away from the pile of the others and makes his way to her. Diego finally reaches her with a smile and she can’t help but notice that he’s taller than her now. His hands come towards her and he takes the food and the waters.

“Mom,” he says, gazing down at her with a soft light in his eyes and she’s heavily reminded of the boy she left downstairs by the oven.

“Diego, sweetheart,” She moves her hand to his outfit, adjusting his collar and holsters full of knives with tenderness, “I’m so proud of you. You grew up so well.”

He returns her smile, with watery eyes, “Thanks Mom.” His arms move around her and she almost blanks when she realizes he’s hugging her. Her Diego, downstairs, never did things like that, but she accepts the hug without a sentence, leaning into her adult son with a soft smile.

“How are you?” She asks, pulling away from him and brushing away some of the stray hairs from his forehead. She trails her fingers down the scar on the side of his head that he didn’t have yet, wondering where he got it, 

Diego huffs a laugh, “I’ve been better. Being here isn’t exactly what I want right now.”

She smiles again, it feels like she’s done that a lot today, “ Of course not. But how did you get here?”

His eyes flicker to the pile of his siblings behind him, “We made a mistake. Five was supposed…”

Her hands fly to her mouth before her baby can finish what he was going to say, “Five?”

Diego looks back at her, “Yeah.” He takes her hands and pulls them away from her mouth, “He’s ok- a bit grumpier- but he’s ok.”

The overwhelming sense of something close to relief floods her circuits and Grace’s grip tightens on his shoulders a bit, “Your father will be telling the children tonight. They’ll be ecstatic to hear that he’s alive, especially after…” She trials off not sure if this version of her son wants to be reminded of his brother’s death. Diego only bits his lip and pulls away.

“I blamed myself,” He tells her softly, “For years after. We all did. How recent was..” He doesn’t say the rest but Grace understands, “Six months.” 

“Shit,” he curses and Grace balks at those words coming out of his mouth in front of her. The younger Diego never cursed in front of her. She’ll have to get used to that, she supposes.

“We’re a mess aren’t we?” he asks, pulling away from her, “I remember how bad the first year was.”

“A bit,” Grace admits watching him as he heads back over to the pile of siblings, placing his hand on each of their heads. They must’ve been really exhausted to not stir when Diego touched them.

“But it seems you all are doing better,” She says, following him over to see who he’s hovering over, “You’re together.” She points out as Diego ruffles Allison’s hair. Her daughter looks just like Grace imagined her, tall, lanky and beautiful. She knows her younger version would be pleased. However, Grace’s eyes fix onto the clean white bandage across her throat and she almost sobs, instead reaching out for her neck. Diego watches her with a sigh, “It was an accident, Mom. It happened yesterday.”

“Oh my,” Grace breathes, pulling away from Allison as she moves, wrapping her arms around a pale figure Grace’s hard-drive connects to Vanya, “Is she ok?”

“Think so,” Diego says, his tone indifferent but the tight pull of his lips betraying his concern, “She’s Allison, though. She’ll be fine.”

“Yea,” Grace agrees distantly, taking in the rest of her children sprawled out on the bed. The young woman she connected to Vanya earlier is dressed in a white suit and snoring quietly. Tucked under her arm is a small figure in a uniform with a pinched brow, Grace brushes some of Five’s hair out of his face. Buried under the blankets is a blonde man that easily resembles Luther and piled on top of him is a thinner man in a hawaiian shirt that Grace adjusts, Klaus. 

Feeling the presence of Diego behind her, she turns to look at him. He inhales deeply and then speaks, “You should go be back with younger us, We’ll see you tonight at dinner.”

She doesn’t want to leave them, but she knows she has to. Her children need her more right now. She takes Diego’s hands, “Alright, sweetheart.” She places a kiss on Diego’s cheek before she leaves, throwing over her shoulder, “I’ll see you soon.”

As she crosses out of the door and into the hall, turning around to see Diego giving her an embarrassed wave. With a grin she waves back, and heads back downstairs to be with her younger son.

But when she gets there, the cookies are burned and he’s nowhere to be seen. Grace blinks and pulls the cookies out of the oven, staring at the charcoal. She begins to mix more batter with a hum. After all her programming tells her that the cookies must be made, with or without her son.

* * *

When Diego finally rouses her, the sky is beginning to turn dark. Allison moans, her throat throbbing and her arms sore. She stretches her legs out, finally pushing herself up to face her brother. He looks incredibly tired and she wonders if he ever got sleep.

He cards his hand through his hair and grunts, “We need to head to dinner soon. Dad wants us all there.”

Dad. She rubs her arms trying to get rid of the shiver that overcame her body. She doesn’t know if she can face him without her voice, her voice was all she had to shield herself from him. Diego chews his cheek and then speaks again, “Vanya is supposed to be there too.”

Allison inhales, remembering the white flash and the bullet fired next to her sisters’ ear. She nods to Diego, shakily rising to her feet and heading over to the pure white lump that she knows is her sister. Behind her, she can hear Diego waking up Five, who angrily bats him away with a muffled “Fuck off.”

Allison approaches her sister carefully, with her hands in front of her. It bears a strong resemblance to poking a bear with a stick, even if that bear is her sister and the stick is her own body. She gently touches Vanya’s shoulder and shakes her awake, just as Klaus falls off the bed behind her with a loud screech.

Vanya’s eyes snap open and for one terrifying moment, they’re pure white. Then her gaze seems to lock into Allison and they morph back into their usual tired brown. 

“Allison?” Vanya croaks, her eyes clearing of the film that had clouded them over, “W-wha..”

Allison instantly pulls her sister into a tight hug, grateful that Vanya seems back to normal. Vanya, although hesitant, reciprocates the hug. She sniffles loudly into Allison’s hair and Allison rubs circles carefully into her back, trying not to startle her. When they eventually pull away from each other, Vanya’s hand catches onto Allison’s sleeve and she twists the shiny black leather between her fingers, as if reassuring herself that Allison’s really there.

A quiet cough comes from behind them and Allison turns to see Five standing there, rather awkwardly. He seems ashamed to have ruined their moment, but it’s barely there in his expression, hidden by his default one of boredom and apathy. Allison cocks her head at him, inviting him to speak.

Five pinches the bridge of his nose, “I messed up. We’re in 2006.” 

He doesn’t seem pleased at the idea, but it could just be the massive bruises under his eyes and his frayed hair. He doesn’t really appear as though he should be standing. Allison pats her lap as an offer to sit down, but he either ignores it or doesn’t see it. He rubs his nose again.

Vanya pipes up from where she’s next to Allison, “Five, I..” Allison turns to look at her sister. Vanya’s calf-like eyes are filled with tears as she gazes at their smallest brother. Five shushes her with a wave of his hand, “Not your fault, Van.” 

Allison’s so focused on Vanya that she doesn’t feel Five approaching til he’s right next to her, “We’ve got a second chance.” He tells Vanya, “And we’re not wasting it.” His voice is filled with the same Five-like determination that he made his rousing apocalypse speeches in. It really makes him sound his apparent age.

Five retreats as quickly as he came, heading over to talk to Diego about something. Allison turns back to Vanya, using her hand to brush some strands out of Vanya’s face. 

Vanya’s head turns away from Five and the others to look at Allison. Allison can see the moment Vanya spots the bandage on her throat because her whole body is racked with shivers.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers into Allison’s neck, her voice unsure, “I’m sorry Allison.”

Allison sighs, wishing she could tell her sister that she’s already forgiven her, but her voice is gone and all she can do is keep her arms around Vanya. Allison loses track of time in her sister’s arms, simply listening to the murmur of her brothers behind her. 

“You look like shit, man. Maybe you shouldn’t go to dinner tonight and get some sleep.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

“I’m serious. You don’t look that great.”

“Gah-you guys are the worst.”

“So are you going to listen to our advice and get some more sleep?”

“No.”

The ensuing shouts of protest are incredibly loud and Allison only tightens her grip on Vanya in an attempt to block out the noises. Vanya sighs against her and Allison finally pulls away, to see their brothers standing behind them in a semi-circle, all with matching looks of concern, even if some (Klaus) were more pronounced than others (Five).

Luther clears his throat and shuffles a bit, obviously not knowing what to say to Vanya, considering he’d led the charge against her in the theater barely twelve hours ago. Allison can tell he wants to apologize, or say something to Vanya to make it all better, but deep in her chest she knows that there’s no way they should be talking about this now. Not when they’re supposed to be downstairs soon, having dinner with their father and their younger selves.

Shit..

She meets Luther’s eyes, unable to put all she wants to say into words but hoping it get through to him, unlike the time down in the basement. Allison shakes her head at him,  _ Not now, We have much more to think about _ .

He shuts up, retreating into himself and taking a step backwards. Klaus scratches one of his arms and grins, “We need to go downstairs. See Daddy Dearest. Eat some food.”

He cocks his head to the side, listening again, “Ben says that we need to figure out how we’re going to handle ourselves.”

Vanya’s arms drop to the bedsheet with a small thump, “Ourselves?”

“Yea, like. We’re in the past and we’re going to have dinner with our past selves. What if we cause a paradox or something? What if I tell past me about that time I waxed my ass with chocolate and then he doesn’t do it? Will I forget what that feels like?” Klaus finishes his statement with a tongue sticking out at the empty air, most likely where Ben is. 

Five rolls his eyes from besides him, “Then you say nothing at all.”

Diego scowls down at Five, “So we just say nothing? That’s it?”

“Yes.”

Klaus crosses his arms in front of his chest, “I don’t know if you know this Fivey, but I was a very curious asshole when I was seventeen. I’m not going to stop asking questions or being annoying about it.”

“Then deflect it,” Five’s eye bags seem to grow another inch, “If you want the future to remain as unchanged as possible, you need to reveal nothing.” He turns to fix Luther with a stare, “That means no yelling at Dad either.” Luther bits his lip and looks away, his hands clenched into fists.

“No telling Vanya about her powers either, “ Five says to Allison, “We need to work this out on our own.” Vanya swallows loudly but nods, looking down at the floor. Allison can feel her face, twisting into a frown, but her notebook is halfway across the room and she doesn’t feel like getting up to go get it.

“We have to keep the damage to the timeline as minimal as possible, for us and so the Commission won’t notice us,” Five says, his tone leaving no room for argument, “I don’t want them here. We don’t need that.”

They all exchanged a glance, remembering the fight in the bowling alley and the theater. If the Commission found them, with their younger, less trained selves there, it wouldn’t end up well.

“Alright,” Diego says softly, “We say nothing.”

It’s unanimous. Their faces grow serious as they begin to realize just how delicate this situation is, Five runs his hand down his face with a groan.

“Now let’s go get some food.”

They file down the stairs in no particular order, arriving in the dining room precisely fifteen minutes before the dinner bell would normally ring. Grace is setting the table when they all pile in, turning to see them all there. Her normal smile widened a fraction.

“Your father wants you in number order,” She tells them, ignoring the scoff from Diego, Klaus and Five, “He’ll be down soon.” 

They shuffle into their number order, something they haven't done since they were children. They leave an open spot for Ben’s ghost to stand in and then they wait. Their father comes down after what seems like an eternity of waiting, his cold grey eyes trailing down each and every one of them, before nodding and raising the golden dinner bell.

The ringing echoes through the halls, stirring the loud noises of feet on the floors and shouts of laughter above them as their younger selves come down the stairs, unaware of their presence. 

Here they come, Allison murmurs to herself, Here I come.

Her brothers are besides her, She can see Diego’s face. He appears nervous, chewing his cheek. Klaus fidgets beside her and she can’t see Five or Luther, but Vanya’s white suit glimmers in the dull brown of the dining room.

The first person steps into the room and Allison squares her shoulders and plants a smile on her face.

Time to look down on the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Family Dinner!


	3. dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner is awkward, Five falls asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda ran out of steam at the end of the chapter and you can tell, but i just need to post this so i can get onto some bonding stuff!
> 
> HURRAY BONDING

If Klaus could describe his entire day in one word, it would be “shitty.”

He woke up fine, almost happy for the first time since Ben had started haunting him five months ago. He hadn’t snuck out of Five’s fire escape window to go get more drugs, he already had a bunch anyways. And his hangover from last night’s liquor fest was almost nonexistent, a small miracle in itself. Ben told him that it was a miracle. A miracle he didn’t have liver cancer that is.

Klaus had laughed it off, excited because he was feeling decent for the first time in almost a month and he didn’t have to go to the mausoleum today because it was Luther’s day to be tortured!

Small victories.

Then Diego had attacked him with his vicious biting words and insensitive garbage and that’s how Klaus found himself dry-heaving over a toilet for almost three hours straight and sobbing his eyes out.

“Diego’s just mad,” Ben tells him, perched on the sink with a soft expression as Klaus curses his brother out on the tile floor.

“Mad at what?” Klaus chokes before putting his face back over the toilet to cough up air.

Ben has no answer.

Anyways, once that nightmare was over, Klaus went into his room and took as many pills as he could and passed out on his bed for multiple hours, only rousing when the dinner bell rang, breaking through his headache and lifting him out of his drug-induced euphoria. Drugs do make a person hungry, so Klaus heaves himself off his bed and stumbles down towards the kitchen, rubbing his eyes and mumbling obscenities under his breath, He’s so distracted that he almost walks straight into Vanya, just as she comes out of her room.

“Sorry,” She apologizes, taking a step backwards into the retreat of her bedroom. Klaus blinks at her in an attempt to figure out who’s speaking to him, before his brain catches up to his memory.

“Van!” He says throwing up his arms like he’s greeting an old friend, “How are you?”

Vanya nervously steps backwards, avoiding his grasp. Klaus has noticed that, in the past couple of months, his siblings have been doing that more frequently, but he can’t bring himself to care that much.

“Fine,” she mumbles with a small sniffle that lets Klaus know that she’s been crying in her room again. He looks away from her, too high to deal with his sister’s emotional state. Vanya doesn’t say anything else, but Klaus can hear the whispers of Ben behind him, asking him to give her a hug or make her feel better for Chrissake.

Klaus ignores her, It’s not worth it. Instead he heads down the stairs with Vanya behind him. The small clacks of their shoes echo down the halls as they approached the dining room together. However, when Klaus stuck his head into the room, a usual thing for him, he always tried to see whether Dad was in the room before he entered it, He stopped cold.

Vanya bumps into his back with a small “oh,” and then presses her hands into his back, trying to steady herself. 

“Klaus?” She asks, her hands flying off his back as if he’d burned her, like she was afraid to touch him. “What’s wrong?”

Klaus stares into the kitchen at the group of adults in the room, just as his father spots him peaking out from behind the door frame.

“Number Four!” He barks at him and Klaus flinches at the harshness in his voice, shrinking back against the door. His father’s cold eyes stare at him, “Stop cowering and get in here.”

Klaus flails around for a second before slowly walking out from his hiding spot, avoiding any of the stranger’s eyes at he found the fourth chair and stood behind it, looking down at the silverware on the plate.

“Look up and greet our guests with politeness, Number Four,” snaps his father without even bothering to say hi or anything. It’s incredibly rude honestly. He wishes Vanya had come out her with him, but knowing her, she was probably waiting for the others to get there so they could arrive in a group. 

Klaus lets out an over exaggerated sigh before looking up at the array of people in front of him and straight into the face of a tall lanky man wearing dog tags and a Hawaiian shirt. There’s something familiar about him, that Klaus can’t quite put his fingers on, but the stranger is wearing a ton of eye makeup so he can’t be all bad, Klaus reasons. The stranger winks at him and Klaus almost laughs, but manages to squash it down with a look at his father’s disapproving face. 

He begins to glance at the other strangers who are staring at him rather intensely. Ben’s voice gets a little closer to his ear, almost as though he was alive and hiding behind Klaus, “They kinda look like,” but he cuts off sharply with a shaky inhale, as though he’s noticed something. 

And Klaus’ drug hazed mind goes over the strangers in his dining room and attempts to make the connections, just as the others erupt into the room, silently, just as their father liked it.

He can see them notice the strangers because of the way their breath hitches and the slight stumble in their feet as they collect themselves. Once they’re all lined up, he sneaks a glance at Diego over Allison’s head. Diego looks frankly, quite awful. He’s got tear streaks drying on his face and red eyes and rumpled clothes. Klaus almost feels bad for him, if only Diego hadn’t been such a dick to him earlier.

Then, Vanya who’d shuffled up next to him, closing the gap that was normally left for Five and Ben, lets out a small gasp of emotion. Klaus, startled at the noise his sister made, glances up at the array of adults in front of them and spots an oddly familiar face sandwiched between the stranger who winked at him and the other stranger in a pretty cool white suit,

Five stares back at him, not even aged a day.

“What?” Klaus murmurs, “The Fuck?”

Their father snaps his fingers, drawing the attention of all of them with a simple noise. When they all turn to look at him, he sniffles haughtily, “Children. He says with a gesture. Meet your future.” He says it in a way that’s so utterly condescending that it hurts Klaus’ head. The others stop their shuffling and stare at him, unblinking and shocked before slowly swiveling their heads toward the strangers on the other side of the room.

And Klaus can totally see it now.

The first stranger is so tall and muscular, it’s almost obscene, but his eyes are blue and soft, just like the Number One Klaus knows so well. God, how could he have not seen it all before?

The one next to him is dressed in leather and completely armed head to toe with knives. Scars split his lips and a gash is placed on the side of his head. He’s scowling at the floor and at pretty much everything else. Definitely Diego. 

Then a beautiful, tall woman with warm eyes who can only be Allison, if she’d actually matured and wasn’t such a bitch all the time. Klaus silently takes in the bandage across her neck and the notepad in her hand, too high to realize exactly what that means.

The not-actually-so stranger that winked at him is next and now Klaus knows why he looks so familiar. 

_ Because it’s him. _

His future self winks at him again and raises a hand to give him a cheeky wave. Klaus barely registers the look on his future self’s face because  _ holy shit-I got Ouija Board tattoos that’s literally so cool. _

“Well,” Their father interrupts the analysis of each other, the children snap to attention but the adults don’t even flinch, “We should begin dinn-”

Their father is cut off by Future Diego dragging his chair out and plopping down into it before their father is finished talking. He takes a knife out of his leather getup and begins using it to clean his teeth, eyeing their dad with a shit-eating grin. 

Their father glares at him, unable to protest because technically this Diego is a guest in their house. Reginald Hargreeves opens his mouth to speak again when apparently-not-dead Five does the exact same thing as Diego, pulling his chair out and sitting down.

The Hargreeves stare in angry shock or admiration as the figure in white, Future Vanya, follows suit, crossing her arms over her chest. The three remaining Future Hargreeves don’t even look at each other before sitting down and in Future Klaus’ case, already begin eating. Klaus and the others blink at their other selves as they begin to eat, completely ignoring their father’s growing anger and reddening face, unable to do anything but stew in private anger as his guests disrespect his own rules.

Before Klaus can even think about it, he’s dragging his own chair back to Luther’s protests and he sits down, stabbing his fork into his roasted pork. Ben lets out an exhale that he’d apparently been holding from behind him, “You’re crazy Klaus.”

“I know,” Klaus whispers back as his future self gives him a not so subtle thumbs up. 

It feels better than any sort of recognition his dad has ever given him.

* * *

_ They’re all staring at you,  _ Delores whispers in Five’s ear as he drags his knife through the pile of potatoes on his plate, unable to eat without thinking of the mold on bread in the apocalypse.

_ I know,  _ he says back, finally dropping his knife back down and glowering at his food as though it’s the source of all his issues. Five thought he’d let go of Delores when he left her with all her friends in her department store, but now.. Now he’s hearing her again, even if she’s in a different time period.

His seventeen year old siblings won’t stop staring at him, like someone who’d come back from the dead and he  _ hates  _ it. Hates their eyes on him and hates the fact that it’s obvious they’re watching every single thing he does. It reminds him of his first year in the Commission, when he’d lay in the too-soft bed at night and think over every thing he’d done in the apocalypse and wonder if they saw that and if they knew how stupid he was.

Teenagers really are the worst, he decides, right then and there, and puberty in the apocalypse was a million times better than here because he’s never felt so nervous in his life.

When he looks up to see if they’re still watching him, he meets Vanya’s eyes. The younger one, not the older and he can’t look for more than a minute before looking away again. She’s just so sad. Her eyes are way more adult than they have any right to be and they’re swimming with tears every time he looks up and at her.

He can’t deal with this shit, so instead he drains his entire glass of water in one dose. Allison, his Allison, shoots him a concerned look.

He ignores her.

Now that he’s slightly more aware after the shock of ice-cold water, he can taste the stale air around them and feel just how awkward this entire dinner is. The only sounds are the slight mutters of seventeen year old Klaus and the scraping of utensils on plates as they eat.

He remembers this feeling, somewhere in the back of his memories, of the awkward dinners and the hushed conversations, but mostly he remembers the day he left, under similar circumstances.

Five doesn’t realize he’s almost fallen asleep until Klaus gently shakes his shoulder, whispering, “Wake up short-stack.”

Five shoves his hand off of his shoulder, the water gone dry in his mouth and Klaus petting his hair for some reason. Five just groans and leans back into his chair. He hates this, he hates just how awkward this entire situation is and honestly, he’s so tired he can barely keep himself upright.

The world blurs around him and he loses track of time. Five slumps down into his chair, tucking his chin into his neck and trying to fall asleep.

This time, it’s Vanya, his Vanya, who wakes him. She rouses him a lot more gently than Klaus did and whispers into his ear, “Five please go. You need to sleep.”

His eyes crack open to stare at her soft smile, “Why?” He croaks.

Vanya shakes her head as though she’s trying to get something out of her ears before whispering again, “Go sleep, Five. Please.”

He blinks at her blearily before shaking his head, “I can’t leave you guys here with him.” His eyes shoot towards their father, who’s watching their quiet exchange with a glare.

“Just do it,” She says and in the back of his mind, he notices her speech is a bit slurred, “We’ll deal with the consequences, but you need rest.”

Five won’t admit it, but he’s grateful for the opportunity to get away from the utter suffocation of social interaction. Equations flow through his brain and he blinks away, back into the bedroom that he’d woken up in.

He’s asleep in minutes.

* * *

Five is gone again, so quickly she barely even sees him go, but Vanya almost sobs when she realizes he’s not there anymore.

_ He’s alive. He’s alive. Five’s alive. _

When she saw him there, her heart had begun to pound so loudly that she was afraid he could hear her. She ‘d kept her gaze on him throughout the entire dinner, even if he’d only looked at her a couple of times before looking away. That had to mean something, didn’t it.

When her future self, clothed in white, had leaned over to speak to him, she couldn't help the spark of jealousy that burned through her heart. She wanted to be that, even if it was her. She wanted to be close to her brother again, especially after..

Ben.

Their father stood up with his plate in hand and a deep red face, “Dismissed.” He says stoutly before leaving the room in a hurry. Future Diego blows a raspberry at his passing back before grunting to his feet.

“I don’t know about you guys,” he says to the others, “But I need a drink because that was the worst thing I’ve ever had to deal with in my life.”

Vanya find herself stupefied as the future versions of them agree with mumbles, except for Future Allison, who sorta glances behind her at them with pity. She leans down, writing something down on a notepad that Vanya hadn’t noticed she was holding and then turns it around to show them.

Scribbled down on the pad are the words, “We’ll talk later.” Older Allison holds it up to them for a couple of seconds before following the others out of the room and towards the bar.

Her family watches them leave, too dumbfounded to even speak until Luther finds his voice first.

“Family meeting, in my room. Ten minutes.”

And Vanya knows she’s not invited as they all rush upstairs. Instead she heads to her room, trying to sort through all the thoughts in her head.

_ Five is ok. Allison can’t talk. I’m in a white suit. Luther gets very big… _

She runs through the little details of the future in her brain as she walks through the silent halls towards her small room. She’s so distracted in fact that when she first hears a retching noise she doesn’t think much of it.

It’s only when she gets close to the bathroom that she begins to hear it and grows nervous, reaching for the door with shaking hands.

“Oh hey, Mini-Vanya.” says Adult Klaus, like he’s not casually leaning over a toilet, “Wanna talk?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Klaus and Young Vanya chat over a toilet, The Younger Hargreeves are very confused


	4. meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanya and Older Klaus chat, the younger kids have a meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll be real with you all, theres no much of a plot as of right now. I have a vague sense of what i’m doing but most of this is on the fly 
> 
> so if it feels a bit wack that’s my explanation

“Uh,” Vanya says, shrinking back against the door. 

After all, what do you say to your brother who’s suddenly way older than you? He waggles his eyebrows at her in a way that reminds her of her brother who practically floats down the halls and chugs down bottles of vodka when he thinks she’s not looking. It’s so stupidly and utterly Klaus that she finds herself taking a step into the room with him as he hacks something else into the toilet, muttering about moon crumbs and withdrawals.

Vanya sinks to the floor next to him, her hand on his back as she awkwardly pats this man who is technically her brother. He waves her hand off and she notices the black ink of tattoos on his palms.

“Uh,” she tries again,”What did you want to talk about?”

Klaus leans away from the toilet to meet her eyes, “Whatever you want to talk about! I honestly don’t remember too much from when I was seventeen. What are you doing at this point in our lives?”

“Violin,” squeaks Vanya, hiding her face behind her bangs. Klaus chuckles gently, his hand brushing the bangs from her forehead, “Yea, I could kinda guess that. You always did play a lot, at least from the parts I can remember ” He hums, thinking, “You do get really good, if it helps.”

“I do?” She pulls the rest of her bangs out of her face with a swipe of her hand. Klaus pulls away from the toilet and sits with his back against the counter. His gaze levels into hers and she can’t help but smile back at him.

“Oh yea, really blew away all the competition.” He smiles grimly like its a joke only he can get. Vanya wishes she knew the joke, tapping her fingers against the door.

“You went to see me play?” asks Vanya instead. Klaus snorts a laugh, heavy through his nose.

“Of course I did. We all did.”

“Oh,” she didn’t think her siblings cared about her violin. Except for..

“Was Five there?” Her voice shakes with emotion, but Klaus doesn’t seem to notice since he closes his eyes and waves his hand through the air again, “Yea, he was. We all were.”

“Oh.” She doesn’t know what else to say. “That’s nice.”

Klaus rolls his eyes, “I guess it was. We were all a bit stressed,” He says this a bit too quickly for her liking and begins to wonder what exactly he’s not saying to her face.

It’s not like she isn’t used to this kind of treatment, she is. Her siblings constantly do this thing to her where their words are friendly enough but their eyes and body signals send her crawling away back to the darkness of her room. It was the same when Luther called a family meeting, he’d clearly not wanted her there so she hadn’t gone, simple as that. 

But there’s a pang in her chest when she sees her adult brother doing the same thing. 

Klaus cocks his head as though he’s listening to something talking to him, His eyebrows pinch together. Vanya hasn’t seen that sort of expression on his face since he started drowning himself in drugs when he was twelve, it gives her a sweet taste of nostalgia.

“Hey, hey.” He says to her, reaching for her shoulders, “Don’t look so sad.”

She sniffles, trying to hide the gross watery snot she can already feel in her nose, “Sorry.”

Klaus keeps his hands on her shoulder and sighs, “You don’t need to be sorry.”

He pulls back, head towards the ceiling, “You always say that.”

“Really?” 

“Yea, Vanya. You aren’t doing anything wrong. There’s no need to apologize.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

He bursts into a sharp round of laughter, before looking back at her with amusement.

“You’re fun to talk to, I wish we’d talked more when we were kids.”

“Oh,” she says not knowing what to say, “I really only talked to Five and Ben.” She gives herself a bit of credit for not tripping over Ben’s name.

“A grouchy gremlin and a mother hen,” Klaus clarifies, cackling like he’s just made the funniest joke in existence, “Quite a combo.”

“Who does- uh- future me talk to?” She asks unable to hide her curiosity. 

Klaus frowns as if trying to remember, “Allison. and sometimes Five, but he’s pretty grumpy now, so..”

She can’t hide her disbelief, “Allison? But she hates me?”

“Nah, she doesn’t,” Klaus smirks at her with the face of someone who knows more than her, “None of us do.”

“But…” she stammers as Klaus seems to come to a realization, “By God’s sweet tiny face, do you think we hate you?”

Her silence is apparently telling enough because Klaus groans and runs a hand down his face. “No wonder you… the moon… Jesus…” 

Vanya waits for him to get his composure before she asks him what he’s talking about, “Um.”

“We don’t hate you Van. We’re just extremely emotionally stunted.”

“Oh.” She finds that a large weight in her heart is gone, “Uh.”

Klaus sighs at her like she’s some sort of child, which she supposes she is to him, “Let me guess, the others are all having a meeting or some shit and you decided not to go.” 

Vanya’s mouth is dry as she bobs her head in conformation. Klaus grins as he leans forward over the toilet, “In these meetings we’d wait for you to show up before we all started screaming at each other.”

Vanya can feel the tears dripping down her face as Klaus coos at her and pushes them away. She sobs hard and Klaus pulls her into a hug. She wraps her arms around him, grateful that even though he’s older, his hugs still feel the same. When they finally pull away from each other,

Klaus stands up on shaky legs, rising a good two feet above her. He ruffles her hair with affection and chuckles, “The meeting has probably already started at this point, but you can go and barge in if you want.”

She shakes her head quickly, unsure about charging into the room where she’d be met by her siblings’ indifferent stares. Klaus puffs out his cheeks, “You can always come into our room if you would like. You can be Minier-Vanya!” 

He says it like it’s a joy to be a part of it, but she can’t help but feel nervous about being in the same room as her siblings from the future. What if they don’t like her? What if she doesn’t like them?

Klaus beams down at her and a small feeling of warmth pulses in her chest. But before she can stop herself, their father’s dark, cold face flashes in her head and she shakes her head, stamping out that spark. Vanya immediately curses her own inner doubts and turmoils when she sees the saddened puppy dog eyes on older Klaus’ face but she’s unable to stop the words rushing out of her mouth.

“That sounds nice Klaus, but I should really practice my violin.” She stammers before turning on her heel and racing out of the room as fast as her legs can take her.

She slams her door closed, ignoring the shouting from Luther’s door down the hall. 

_ We don’t hate you _ .

But as she throws herself on the bed and screams into her pillow, she can’t convince herself he’s telling the truth.

* * *

They’re all seated in Luther’s space-themed room, waiting for Vanya. Diego and Klaus are on opposite ends of the room, each glaring at the other and neither one willing to back down. Allison runs a hand through her hand, quietly contemplating dying it just like her older self apparently had. Luther stares down at his arms, making sure they aren’t going to randomly burst into giant muscles like his older self.

Ben sits in the corner on top of the dresser, unseen but present. 

They wait about five minutes before Luther clears his throat and stands up, officially beginning the meeting.

“So,” he says, eyes tracing each of his siblings, “We need to talk about some things.”

“What about Vanya?” 

Allison scoffs and eye-rolls at the same time, a new thing she’s been trying out recently, “She never comes anyways, why would this time be any different?”

“I thought,” Klaus mumbles, “She would want to come this time.”

“Whatever,” bites out Diego, “It’s her problem that she’s not here, just like always.”

“Ok.” Luther obviously doesn’t know how to take Diego’s diss on their sister since he very subtly steers the conversation away from the subject, “We should discuss things.”

“What is there to discuss?” Diego’s already jumping off his perch to get in Luther’s face, “Our future selves are here and they pissed off Dad and now they’re upstairs.”

“Ok,” Luther says stepping backwards so he can look Diego in the eyes, “But why are they here?”

“Who cares, they’re here now.” Diego shot back, “And there’s nothing we can do about it but accept it and move on.”

Luther frowns, “But what if they were fighting something-or some one- and that person has a time travel machine. Shouldn’t a villain like that be stopped?”

Klaus’ coat rustled as he began to look for secret drugs he could’ve hidden in the pockets. Allison turned to look out of Luther’s window like she was posing for a movie poster. Ben snorted from next to Klaus, “Wonder if Luther remembers Five’s time travel obsession.”

“Obviously not,” Klaus replies waving his hand towards where Luther and Diego are having a metaphorical dick measuring contest.

Ben hummed thoughtfully, “Maybe Vanya went to go talk to him.”

“Five?” Klaus asks, not even paying attention when his remaining three siblings look over at him. Luther grumbles again, shifting from foot to foot, “That’s another thing we should talk about.”

“Again, what is there to talk about?” Diego shouts, “We both know how Five thinks and there’s no way he’s going to give up information that easily.”

“Then I could just rumor him,” Allison said flippantly, tossing her hair over her shoulder to look at them. Yea, she was definitely going to convince her older self to help her dye it. 

“I don’t know if you know this,but that would be considered rude.” Klaus snaps at her, too irritated to care about his sister’s feelings, “Plus, your older self can rumor people too and she can’t just rumor you right back,” He decides not to point out that Future Allison appears to have been injured.

A dark look crosses Allison’s face as she comprehends his words and begrudgingly realizes them to be true. She still scoffs and eye rolls though, “I bet I can rumor her.”

“Sure Ally, Keep telling yourself that,” Ben says going back to his book.

Klaus chuckles before turning back to Luther and Diego, “Look why don’t we see what happens in the morning and then make a group decision then. We don’t know that much about ourselves in the future, maybe we try and get to know them before we make any decisions.”

Luther’s mouth twitched like he wants to protest, before actually filing Klaus’s words into his brain. He pinches his brow in a very Five-like fashion and then nods at Klaus, “Klaus is right. We need to analyze the situation a bit more before.”

“Well I’ve already analyzed it,” Diego puts the word analyzed in air quotes, “I trust myself, and Mom seems to like them.”

“Of course it goes back to Mom,” snaps Allison, a bit miffed that her input had been rejected, “You're such a Mama's boy, Diego, Maybe you should grow up.”

Diego wastes no time firing back, “You’re only saying that because the only way you can get anyone to like you is by lying.”

Allison’s face twists as though she’s been slapped, and she opens her mouth, presumably to rumor him, before realizing that rumoring him would simply prove his point. She stands up as gracefully as she can and escapes the room. They can hear her door slam from outside. 

“That went well,” Ben grins to himself, still staring at his book. Klaus snickers and rises to his feet, give his brothers a look before leaving Luther’s room to head over to his own.

Ben follows him with a sulky expression on his face and a book in his hand. He heaves a breath (do ghosts even need to breathe?) and speaks, his voice slightly muffled through the drugs Klaus is currently on, “I want to talk to Five.”

“Sorry Bensalem,” Klaus slurs as he walks down the halls, “That’s impossible. Five can’t hear you.”

“Then you need to talk to him.”

“Later,” A wave of his hand, “The kid looked like he was going to pass out any second.” Now that was a weird thing to say, the kid. 

Five had always seemed younger than him, despite his overbearingly snotty attitude and general brain power. Now he literally was younger than Klaus and hanging out with his adult self, no less. Klaus couldn’t help but feel a bit betrayed by his little brother, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want the best for Five. 

“I’ll talk to him in the morning,” He says to Ben as he opens the door to his room, preparing to collapse into his sheets, “Maybe he’ll be awake by then.”

Ben snorts, “Have you ever seen Five in the morning?”

“Not in four years,” Klaus remarks pulling the covers over his head, “Goodnight Ben.”

“Goodnight asshat.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Young Luther talks to Diego, Five searches for coffee, Young Klaus and Vanya team up to search for Five


	5. break fast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luther, Diego and Five go to Griddy's, Ben meets Ben and Klaus and Allison discuss family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so utterly long, I've just had a very stressful week and have been unable to write anything. 
> 
> But now I'm going on a 3 day road trip so I have the time.
> 
> YAY

During the night, Luther would say he woke up about three to four times from hearing people moving around and voices muttering above him. 

So he wasn’t all that surprised when he rolls out of bed to his alarm clock reading 4 am, mostly he just feels a bit disgruntled. It’s not the first time he’s been woken up before everyone else in the house simply because he was the leader and the “oldest” and it certainly won’t be the last. He’s already drained and bruised from his training yesterday so he takes his time heading down the stairs, limping and grunting under his breath. Hopefully, Mom is up and running so he can have some breakfast. 

When he gets down to the kitchen, however he can hear the clattering of pans and glass and angry cursing and he freezes, unsure if someone had just broken into their house and is now raiding their kitchen. Just to be safe, he raises his fists up, preparing for a fight. 

What he wasn’t expecting was his adult brother leaning against the counter, watching a teleporting blur ransack the kitchen. Diego spotted him as he walked in and gave him a manly head nod, subtle and intimidating. Luther found himself waving at him and then wanting to smack himself in the head because  _ this is adult Diego and he’s probably just as judgy as the Diego Luther knows. _

Instead this Diego barely gives him a second glance before he’s talking to the blur that Luther now recognizes as his missing twin.

“Dad hates coffee,” Diego tells Five, “If you want some, you'll have to go get some.”

Five sticks his head over the counter with a very grumpy expression and Luther smiles at him, simply allowing himself to relax in his twin’s presence. Five’s eyes glance over him before he snaps back, “Then maybe I will.” 

He makes to run out the front door, but is grabbed by adult Diego before he can, “Nope, you’re not running out again.”

Five rolls his eyes at Diego, “I can just leave if I wanted too.”

He emphasizes his point by letting his powers activate, sending him next to Luther. Luther side-eyes him, mentally comparing their heights. Five is now a lot smaller than Luther remembered him, but that’s probably because Luther is seventeen now and Five is still. Five. 

“Whatever dude,” Diego points a knife at him, “You're still tired from time traveling us all here and like hell, I’m letting an exhausted kid go out on the streets at 4 in the morning.”

“Not a kid,” Five says resigned. He does still look just as tired as he was at dinner last night. Luther can feel his heart bump in his chest when Five turns his attention to him.

“Why are you here again?”

“Uh,” stammers Luther under Five’s scrutinizing look, “I woke up?”

Five cocks an eyebrow but doesn’t say anymore instead jumping onto one of the seats and slumping forwards. His head rests onto his crossed arms. Diego heads over to the fridge, snapping one of his knives back into his holster. Luther finds his voice at last, “Are you making breakfast?”

Five snorts from where he’s buried in his arms, “If you can call it that.” Behind him, Diego pulls out the entire egg carton. Luther watched him in horrified fascination as Diego takes an entire egg and cracks it -raw- into his mouth. 

Five doesn’t say anything which makes Luther realize that this must be a pretty regular occurrence. Still, he watches a bit of yolk drip down Diego’s chin as the man in question spots him watching in quiet horror. Diego holds an egg out to Luther with a grin, “Wanna try?”

Luther’s eyes flick between the egg in Diego’s hand, the yolk still dripping down his mouth and the smile on his brother’s face. Five lifts his head up to watch their interaction, a smile playing on his lips. 

It’s a challenge. Luther takes the egg. 

Five sits up fully, watching Luther as he slowly holds the egg up, almost dramatically. In reality, he’s wishing he was anywhere but here, underneath Diego’s withering gaze and Five’s oddly child-like awe. 

Diego pulls away, leaning against the stove with a tight grin as Luther closes his eyes and hope it goes quickly. The egg crunches under his grasp. He opens his mouth.

The next moment, he feels something wet hit his lips as he slams his mouth closed. The raw egg drips off his clothes and all he can feel is hot, burning shame. 

How can he be the Umbrella Academy’s brave leader if he can’t even stick an egg in his mouth?

Five chuckles softly and tiredly and turns away, gazing at the pantry. Diego simply gets up and reaches back into the egg carton. Luther swallows, standing there in his egg-soaked clothes and embarrassed for himself. 

Diego moves to the stove and heats it up, grabbing a pan, making no move to hand the egg in his hand over to Luther. Luther waits for the bomb to drop, for the yelling, for the “Number One can’t be this cowardly! Stick the egg in your mouth!”

Diego cracks the egg into the pan and Luther breaks with the shell. 

“I didn’t eat the egg!” He blurts. Five looks up from his not-slumber and Diego turns around to fix him with a serious look,

“So?” 

Luther can feel his cheeks getting hotter and hotter as he clenches his fists, “It’s…” He moves his mouth but no sound comes out, “I thought.”

Diego rolls his eyes, “It’s just me. You don’t have to prove anything. Dad’s not even going to come down here until 6am,” Five coughs slightly and Diego looks at him, “Besides nothing I do is grosser than Mr. I Eat Cockroaches.”

Five’s face twists as though the memory is painful and not what he wanted to talk about at the moment, but Luther stares at his twin, shocked. 

“You eat cockroaches?” 

“Only if I’m desperate.”

“We aren’t letting him do that anymore,” Diego said glaring at Five, who only scowls harder, “How did you even know about that? I only told Vanya.”

“Vanya told me,” Diego replies matter-of-factly, but Luther’s still trying to get over the fact that Five has eaten bugs. He sits down next to his younger twin, leaning over to look at his face. Five, very pointedly, ignores him, choosing instead to sit up.

“I need coffee,” he says again. Diego grunts in acknowledgement as he stirs the eggs in the pan. Luther purses his lips in thought and then asks, “Then why don’t we all go to get some?”

Diego stops mixing his eggs to give Luther a confused glance. Five perks up from next to him, “See even Luther agrees that coffee is important.”

“I didn’t say that,” Luther said, backtracking quickly, “But if you want it so bad then..” 

He doesn’t want to say that he’s only agreeing to this to make Five feel better, but now that Five seems a bit more excited, he can’t help the piercing feeling in his gut at the thought of leaving the house without his father’s orders.

Diego stops making his eggs to shoot Luther a look, as though he knows Luther’s lying through his teeth. His eyes sparkle with amusement, “Let’s all go then.”

“W-what?” Luther stammers as Diego whips out a small needle-like object from his outfit. Five shifts from next to him and rises to his feet. 

“Yea, we’re gonna get coffee for the house,” Diego decides, “Allison and Vanya will want some, probably Luther too.” He runs his hand over his face when he sees Luther’s confused expression, “Not you, our Luther.”

Luther opens his mouth to protest, trying to get his brothers to stop before they disobey Dad and get in trouble or worse, hurt, when he realizes with a shuddering breath that Diego’s an adult and technically doesn’t have to obey Dad at all.

Diego’s eyes glitter as he swings his carjack around, “How does Griddy’s sound?”

Five gets up immediately, grabbing the car jack out of Diego’s hand and rushing out the door. Diego shouts in protest, chasing down Five with all the determination of a rampaging bull.

Luther listens to the shouts of Five as Diego catches him and then tilts his head up to the ceiling above him, listening for the footsteps of his siblings or worst the clicking of his father’s shoes.

He hears nothing.

Luther runs after his future brothers, resolved that his siblings will be safe for a bit. 

* * *

Ben heads to the library once Klaus’ head hits the pillow. After all, what else is he supposed to do? Watch his brother sleep? Even if no one except Klaus can see him do it, Ben still finds watching other people sleep to be downright creepy and reminiscent of Reginald’s weird habit of attaching things to their heads to see their dreams or some shit. 

So he heads straight for the library although he briefly toys with the idea of checking on his adult siblings and then decides that would be just as weird as watching his current siblings sleep anyways.

What he doesn’t expect is when he walks into the library is himself, with a startled expression on his face and a book in his hand.

“Uhhhh,” both Bens say at the same time. The other (adult?) Ben gestured politely with his book, “You first.”

“Fuck I’m still hanging out with Klaus?” Ben curses, eyeing his future self with caution. Other Ben barks a laugh, “Unfortunately, yes.”

“Damnit. What about the place beyond or whatever?” Ben asks stepping closer to his future self as if to see if he’s aged a bit. He hasn’t.

“Never tried to go,” Future Ben says, setting his book down and relaxing down into an armchair, “I almost did, after a year, but Klaus had a major overdose on the anniversary of my,” He pauses, considering, “ _ Our _ death. I decided to stick around and now I’m here,” He shrugs loosely, “It’s not so bad.”

Ben flits forwards and settles into the armchair opposing his “twin.” 

“So we never have eternal peace?”

Future Ben snorts, “Did you really think that was possible in this family? You stick around cause you’re worried about those idiots,” His voice is tinged with a familiar affection that send shivers down Ben’s spine.

“Yea,” he admits, “You’re right.”

“Course I am,” snorts Future Ben, “I’m you.”

Ben chuckles at that and then thinks, trying to place his future self. He looks the same as Ben does, but there‘s something world-weary in the way he’s slumped into his chair and flipping through a book as though he’s read it millions of time already, which Ben realizes he probably has. 

“Hey,” he says carefully, not wanting to mess up Future Ben’s concentration. He looks up from his book, midway through turning a page, “What happened to you guys? How did you get here?”

Future Ben bites his lip with concern and his eyes slide back and forth as if watching for someone to burst into the room. When no one comes, he exhales, “I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you anything.”

“Why not?” Ben juts his chin out stubbornly, “Who am I going to tell?”

“Klaus,” answers Future Ben seriously, “You would tell him.”

“He’s probably too high to pay attention,” Ben grunts sarcastically, “He’s always high.”

“He’s a lot more observant than you think he is,” Future Ben’s smile is weirdly fond, “He’ll remember all sorts of stupid shit you’ve done or said.” His face becomes more serious, “That’s why if I tell you what happened, you can’t tell him. We can’t change the future.”

“Why not?” Ben asks in total confusion, “What’s wrong with fixing what’s wrong with the future?”

Future Ben rubs his brow tiredly, “It’s too complicated to get into right now.”

“We have all the time in the world,” Ben sounds irritated, “We’re dead.”

Future Ben nods with exhaustion, but doesn’t say anything else, instead choosing to look away from Ben and towards the bookshelves surrounding them.

“Dad’s dead in our time,” Future Ben mutters, resolutely not looking at Ben and instead focusing on the book sitting on the shelf next to him, “We all left the house at that point, even Luther. We all came back to the house for the funeral. When we were about to start, Five came back.”

Ben can feel a smile tugging at his lips when his future self stares even harder at the book, avoiding his gaze, taking a deep breath before continuing on, “Five coming back didn’t really change our plans, then we had the funeral.”

“Why didn’t you guys sit down and talk or something?” Ben already knows the answer even as he asks the question, but he still wants to hear it from the horse’s mouth. In his mind he can only think about what he would do if Five came back when he was still alive, probably hug him.

Future Ben snorts to himself more than anything, “At that point we hadn’t seen each other in thirteen years- seventeen for Five- Nobody really wanted to talk. We had the funeral and then went our separate ways, except for Five, I guess. He got Klaus to go to a tech company with him to look for a plastic eyeball.”

“Why would Five go to some random tech company?” Ben asks, adjusting himself so that he’s in a more comfortable position. He can tell this story is going to be long and winding, just from the tired tone of Future Ben’s voice. 

“That’s what I thought too! Anyway, Five didn’t get what he wanted out of that interaction, so he kinda just left Klaus and I there. We had to walk home together and then when we got there, we were almost immediately invaded by these two dumb-looking assassins.”

“Wait what?” Ben leans forwards, intrigued, “When did assassins become a part of this?”

“Since now,” Future Ben crosses his legs with a practiced ease, “It’s just part of the job at this point. Can I go on?”

“Sure,” Ben replies, excited at the idea of learning about the lives of his future siblings, “Keep going.”

And Future Ben does.

* * *

When the amazingly irritating breakfast bell sounds in the morning, Klaus wakes up almost immediately. It’s pure instinct, he tells himself as he slowly pulls on his uniform with a stiffness not usually seen in kids his age, stretching out the socks so they pull over his knees just the way Dad likes them. Normally, Dad wouldn’t comment on Klaus’s disheveled appearance but with their future selves in the building and the horrific display last night, Dad’s certain to be even more nitpicky than normal.

_ Thanks cool future me,  _ He grumbles as he flounders down the halls towards the kitchen,  _ Real helpful. _

However when he arrives at the kitchen, he has to do a double take because the woman standing in the kitchen, standing over the stove isn’t his mother, but rather a blonde-hair dyed woman that he vaguely recognized as the future version of Allison.

“Uh, hi?” He tried, almost wincing at the raspiness of his own voice. Allison turns around with a certain sparkle in her eyes, and Klaus is utterly baffled by her. How can a future version of his cold and bitchy sister look so  _ motherly? _

She’s leaning over the counter to pick something up and when the thing she’s holding comes into his field of vision, he notices the notebook she was holding last night. She scribbles something down and then turns the notebook around to show him.

Good Morning, Klaus, It read and Klaus feels his heart sink into his chest.

Allison can’t talk.

A burning wave of sympathy and shock fills his body and the burning sensation fills his throat. Klaus fights the urge to vomit at the thought of anyone taking away his sister’s whole world and instead, settles for a shaky smile.

“Hey, Allison.”

She beams at him and takes another moment to write something down on her pad, Klaus waits patiently, the burning still in his gut and the memory of being ignored by his siblings at the forefront of his mind.

Allison turns the note around and Klaus takes a moment to read it, determined to make sure this version of his sister has her voice. 

I asked Mom to let me make some breakfast this morning. I need some practice.

“Oh that’s nice,” He seats himself down at one of the barstools, eyeing her as she turns back to the pan of eggs on the stove, “What are you practicing for?”

Allison whips around, the smile still on her face. He doesn’t know how she can seem so enthusiastic about making some eggs but it brings a small sense of relief to him to know his sister doesn’t seem completely down about her situation.

She steps a bit closer to him, pulling out a small brown leather square and opens it. Klaus vaguely recognizes it as a wallet, not dissimilar to one he’s stolen before. She slides a photo across the table and Klaus takes it.

It’s Allison, the one standing across from him, smiling into the camera as if she’s staring at someone she loves very deeply. And tucked into her arms is a miniature version of Allison, tiny and beaming.

Klaus wishes Ben was here, because Ben loves babies. And  _ Holy Shit. _

“You have a daughter,” He says, his voice sounding as though he’s underwater to his ears.

A daughter. He has a niece, technically not yet. But,  _ wow.  _

Them leaving their father and going to create lives of their own was never something that he’d thought about very often, even on his little excursions to the outside world to soothe his ever-growing desire for ways to block out the noises. He’d watched ordinary people live their lives and thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice to be like that?’

But this Allison had that, even if she was mute, even if her most powerful weapon was gone, she still had a life now.

And Klaus thinks he gets it.

Allison takes the photo back with a smile and sets it back into her wallet, closing the clasp and heading back for her notebook. She writes something quite quickly and when she turns it around, there’s a name.

Claire.

“That’s a beautiful name,” he says, immediately reflecting back on the smiling little girl in the photo, “She seems great.”

There’s a sad wishfulness and longing in Allison’s eyes as she nods, turning back to her eggs. Klaus falls silent as he watches her work, thinking about his own future self.

Had he gotten married? Did he have a kid? What was his life like?

Klaus was filled with a sudden urge to go find his future self and interrogate him until he learned all the juicy details of his own life. Ben could help him, it would be a family bonding activity.

Ben.

Did Future Klaus have a Future Ben?

Allison drops a pan and he startles at the noise. She waves her hands apologetically at him, but Klaus can’t help but stare at her. 

His sister might know. If they’re really from the future, then maybe Klaus had finally gotten the courage to tell them that he saw their brother’s ghost constantly.

So he asks.

Allison doesn’t drop the pan again, but she does come quite close, fumbling with the handle for a second to look at him. He gives her a winning-smile and she peers at him, as if looking into his eyes. Eventually, she straightens up, apparently satisfied and nods. 

“You know about Ben?” he asks, making sure he’s understood her correctly. She looks back at him with a warm look that he now knows is a motherly one and nods again.

“Oh, cool,” Klaus shrugs his shoulders as Allison turns away again, freezing when he spots movement behind him.

“What about Ben?” says Vanya’s whispery voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next TIME: I actually do what I'm supposed to and come up with a plot, Younger Allison and Diego get a spotlight and Older Vanya and Luther have a chat. ALSO I FORGOT ABOUT REGGIE AND THAT'S DUMB OF ME  
Also, Five, Luther and Diego are literally the worst three to go get Griddy's


	6. dining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eating and chatting because we have no actual plot at this point!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOO, NO PLOT!
> 
> That's a lie, we kinda have a plot but it's a it shitty at the moment.
> 
> (This is why we shouldn't write without a plot in mind, ALWAYS PLAN YOUR FICS)

“Ben?” Vanya asks, her voice shaky and tired. She’s just woken up from the most fitful sleep of her life and she’s emotionally drained and just wants something warm to hold close to her chest. She wasn’t expecting to walk into the kitchen to see her most twitchy brother talking to an older version of her only sister.

Allison’s eyes widen comically when she sees Vanya standing in the doorway and Vanya feels a slight flash of irritation at that. She lives in this house too, it shouldn’t be a surprise to see her there. 

Klaus is also gaping at her, and she wants to scoff at him. When he sees her glaring or at least, in her case, looking slightly irritated, he schools his expression into a grin. 

“Hey Vanya!” He says, “You're so quiet, I didn’t even hear you behind me!”

Now that feels like an insult, she stalks over close to him, her hands bunch into her skirt. It was already bad enough that Klaus couldn’t see Ben, he had no right to speak about their brother when he’d spent the entire funeral making terribly timed jokes as the rest of them stared, filled with numb apprehension and overpowering grief.

Future Allison wrings her hands and gives Vanya a smile, but she can barely comprehend it through the red-filled haze in her eyes. All she can see is her brother’s sheepish grin and waving hands as he dismisses her anger just like he always does. In an attempt to calm herself with the familiarity of something, she pulls out her pill bottle and quickly dry swallows one.

Allison’s eyes widen with horror and Vanya could barely see her older sister through the calming relief that the pills always give her. She puts the bottle back into her pocket and numbly sits down next to Klaus, her earlier anger feeling quite a bit more subdued. Allison continues to stare at her, her mouth moving but no sounds coming out.

Klaus doesn’t look at her, instead his eyes float over to the side of him, where she suspects some ghost could be. Before she could stop herself, her question forces itself out of her throat, “So, Ben?”

“Right,” Klaus giggles, eyes darting towards Future Allison, who has currently stopped resembling a fish and is now staring extremely hard at the table in front of her. Klaus looks away from her and towards Vanya, “Ben’s been haunting me for a bit, about five months now.”

Vanya can feel her mouth open in shock, her residual anger at Klaus evaporating. She blinks in full contemplation before forcing herself to speak, “Why haven't you said anything?” 

It’s not what she wants to say, what she wants to say is  _ why didn’t you tell me?  _ or even better,  _ why were you making jokes about it, when we were all mourning? _

Klaus shrugs his left shoulder, “I did.”

No you didn’t, she wants to spit, you made terribly timed jokes about it and made everyone in the house more bitter and sad.

Allison smiles at her again, more sympathetic and this time when she does, Vanya notices the clean slash right through her neck and grimaces, She hopes Allison didn’t notice but she did, flinching backwards and turning back to whatever she’s making. 

Vanya looks back at Klaus, demanding a sort of explanation. If he has one, he doesn’t deliver, instead he pops air out of his cheeks and clicks his tongue. Allison slides a plate of slightly charred looking eggs over to him with a furtive glance at Vanya. She grabs something from the opposite counter and scribbles something down on it. Vanya watches hollowly as her sister hands her the pad with the words “Would you like some food?” on it.

Vanya shakes her head, feeling too sick and confused to keep anything down. She glances at Klaus again, trying to put herself in his shoes. Would she tell her siblings if she could see Ben and none of them could?

She decides that she would, because unlike Klaus, she does care about the other’s feelings. 

Behind her is the slight sound of footsteps and she turns to see herself and Klaus, the older Klaus from last night. He gives her a cheeky wave and then practically skips over to the version of Allison behind the counter, wrapping his arms around her with a grin. 

“How’s the breakfast, Mini-Me? he asks the Klaus next to her, who replies all too enthusiastically, “It’s great Bigger-Me!”

Future Klaus claps his hands in excitement, “I love that name! What do you think Van?”

At first Vanya thinks that he’s talking to her, but she sees a hand reach around her to grab at one of the apples in the fruit basket on the table, she realizes that he was talking to her twin. 

Her older self isn’t much taller than her, in fact she’s about the same height. But her bangs are completely gone, her hair now frames her hollow, pale face. There’s dark smudges under her eyes and the smudges seem to bleed down her cheeks, giving her a small illusion of tears. It only takes Vanya a slight beating moment to realize that it’s not an illusion, those are dried tear tracks.

Older her edges away from the others with slight apprehension, chewing on her apple. Her Klaus doesn’t even glance at her, but she spots Future Allison giving her a concerned look. Vanya can’t help but wonder what happened between her and her sister to make them act this way, as far as she’s concerned, Allison hates her.

Speak of the devil, Allison herself walks into the room, followed by Diego, both of her arguing about something that most likely wasn’t important. They both stop when they see the lot of them hanging around the kitchen table, silly eating on food. Future Allison’s smile widens a fraction and she waves at her past self.

But, just like the Allison Vanya’s used to, past Allison turns up her nose and sniffs. Instead she turns her head away, looking for her partner in crime, Luther. Vanya can see the exact moment that she doesn’t see him waiting for her, because her gaze filled with disappointment. Future Allison doesn’t say anything, instead moving away from the counter and sitting down on a chair, her expression hurt.

The last person to arrive is Future Luther, who lumbers down and accidentally bonks his head onto the chandelier. Vanya sputters down a laugh as he groans, placing his hand on his head. She can see out of the corner of her eyes, her siblings also trying not to laugh. But the older versions of them simply bite their lips sadly. 

She wonders what happened. 

There’s still three of them missing, Future Diego — a person she didn’t want to mess with — Her Luther — odd behavior from Dad’s Number One — and Five — the only person she really, really wanted to talk to. 

The silence that falls over them is honestly kind of hilarious, considering there’s a total of nine people in the room and their father’s suffocating presence isn’t there. Vanya shifts in her seat and takes count of the expressions on people’s faces. 

Allison and Diego’s argument, which was most likely about something utterly stupid has died off in the wake of the oppressive silence in the room and both of them are still glaring at each other, but neither is willing to shatter the still sound in the room.

But Klaus is.

“So,” Future Klaus says, “Anyone know where Diego and Fivey are? They seem like an unlikely duo.”

“They went to get coffee,” Future Luther informs him, seemingly glad to break the silence, “We’re probably gonna need it.”

Future Allison snorts heavily through her nose, changing her gaze to fixate on her siblings, the hurt from the rejection of her past self fading away. 

“I don’t!” Klaus replies cheerily, almost as though he’s forgotten that Vanya and the others are in the room, “Caffeine makes my stomach all loopy,” He wiggles his fingers towards Vanya’s twin, who tries to hide a weak smile and fails.

“It does?” asks her Klaus, the first of Vanya’s siblings to insert himself into the conversation. Future Klaus beams at him.

“Sure does! It sucks too. Otherwise it’d be a great way to get on Daddy Dearest’s nerves.”

Klaus laughs awkwardly along with her future self, not sure if he should laugh considering Klaus has just called their father, “Daddy Dearest,” and the threat of the man himself walking through the door is a constant one.

Future Luther just sighs, as though he’s had to deal with this train of thought more times than he’s ever wanted to, “You probably shouldn’t say that to his face, Klaus.”

“Pfffttt,” Klaus blows a raspberry at Luther’s tired face, “I’m an adult, I can do what I want.” HE stops as though listening to another vice, before sighing, “I guess not.”

They lapse into another silence, quiet and contemplative, though less heavy than it was before. Vanya can’t help but look at her Klaus, the one who’d told her that he saw her dead brother only a little bit ago. 

_ What if he’s telling the truth?  _ A part of her whispers,  _ What if Ben’s really there? _

She doesn’t want to ask Klaus himself, future or past, that would just be bad for her. Klaus can’t be trusted to tell the truth.

The only person she can trust is herself.

Her eyes flit towards her future self, decked out in an odd combo of Academy pajama bottoms and her glowing white suit jacket. 

Surely she can trust her?

The appearance of their father at the doorway interrupts her train of thought. His cold eyes only need to glance once over the mass of his children in the room before he asks the million dollar question, “Where is Number One?”

* * *

Number One is currently trapped in a diner booth next to Five, curled around a mug of coffee and across from older Diego, chomping on a muffin, crumbs spraying out of his mouth. Despite the less than ideal circumstances he finds himself in, he’s enjoying it, eating his blueberry pancakes with relish and chuckling every time Five pretends not to have swiped some of them off his plate.

He’s content.

Diego brushes some of the crumbs off his face and leans a bit closer to Luther, despite the many scars peckered on his face, Luther feels no sense of intimidation. Diego’s not trying to scare him, only analyze him.

“You look like shit,” He tells Luther, as though Luther doesn’t already know that, “Were you in private training yesterday?”

He says it with the undertone of someone who hasn’t thought about private training in a while. Not for the first time, Luther wonders what the future is like.

“Yea,” He answers truthfully, “I did, but it wasn’t as bad as normal.” The bruises under his pajama shirt contradict that, but Diego doesn’t need to know that.

Diego rolls his eyes, “Yea sure, Doesn’t matter how bad it was. Still painful.” He leans back in the diner booth, “Dad’s training is shit.”

Luther fights the urge to agree with him and simply glares at his older brother, “It’s not that bad.”

Diego grins at him, a cocky grin that implies he knows more than Luther ever will, “You need to get out of the house, dude. Learn some more about how to train in a way that doesn’t leave a massive amount of bruising and shit. Training shouldn’t destroy your body.” He pulls out a knife and gestures toward the bruises on Luther’s neck that his pajama shirt failed to cover.

Five grunts from next to him, “You do need to get out of the house,” He eyes the collar of Luther’s shirt with a wisdom that doesn’t match his baby-faced cheeks. There’s a sad-longing in his tone, “Maybe if you did..” he doesn’t finish, but one of his hands does twitch towards Luther’s, who takes it carefully.

It’s bizarre to hold Five’s hand again especially since he’s now smaller than Luther is. Five scrunches up his face in discomfort, but doesn’t let go, even when Diego shoots him a smirk.

He takes a sip of his coffee instead. 

Luther sighs carefully, eyes drifting around the other customers in the restaurant. There’s an elderly couple quietly chatting together, arms looped around each other in an albeit disgustingly cute fashion. A teen sits by herself, staring out the window with a milkshake with two straws in it. A formal man in a business suit read the newspaper across the room. No threats to make the other two aware of. Luther turns back to them.

Diego is cleaning his teeth out with a knife but when he sees Luther watching him, he winks. Luther rolls his eyes, thinking. This is the only way he’d be able to learn more about the future, in a place away from his father with two people that he knows. Luther asks the almighty question, “What’s the future like?”

Diego hums, dropping his hand that holds the knife and giving Luther a scrutinizing look. Five’s grip on his hand tightens a bit, but he still doesn’t let go.

“Uh,” Diego’s eyes glance at Five, “It’s nice?” He tries, but Luther’s not having it.

“What’s it like?” He insists stubbornly, letting go of Five’s hand, “You guys wouldn’t be here if some mission hadn’t gone wrong. What happened?”

Five pulls away from him and meets Diego’s eyes that shine with desperation for a way out, like a cornered animal. Luther doesn’t know what it means, but something in his stomach drops at the idea of his older siblings doing something wrong on a mission, messing it up. Their version of their father would probably be so angry with them, Luther can’t even imagine.

“It was me,” Five finally says, his voice quiet, “I messed up the equations.”

Luther doesn’t even know where to begin with that, but he turns to his twin with a question burning on his lips, “So when you left, saying all that stuff about time travel. Did you actually-”

“Yes.”

Luther’s lips are dry, so he licks them, “Where did you go?”

“The correct question is when,” Diego crosses his arms over his chest, staring at Five as well. There’s a sadness in his gaze and Luther knows that Diego already knows what happened and it wasn’t good, going off of the way he’s looking at Five.

Five’s nose is crunched into his face, the same expression he got when he was reluctant to do something Luther told him to do. It sends a wave of love down Luther’s spine, his brother is still the same.

“I don’t want to discuss this,” Five deflects, pushing himself away from the booth bench and rising to his feet, “We need to head home before Reginald wakes up.”

With that, he rushes out of the restaurant, disappearing in a flash of blue light. Diego watches him go, scooting his way out of the booth. When he stands, he looks down at Luther, still seated. 

“It’s probably better not to ask him about that, Luth,” He says, offering his hand, “We can’t talk about the future or what happened without screwing up the timeline.”

Luther’s mouth forms a ‘o’ as he unsteadily climbs to his feet. Diego grunts in affirmation as Luther begins to walk out, heading towards the car that Five had apparently stolen from some random guy down the street. Luther’s mind whirrs with the possibilities and questions, but he now knows that even if their future selves wanted to reveal things they can’t.

Behind them, unnoticed, the business man rises to his feet and presses a small device latched onto his ear.

“We found them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Reginald gets Mad, UHHHH The Commission?


	7. confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego punches an asshole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I'm super sorry that this took so long? I had no intentions of like... postponing this, but life gets in the way, you know?

“Where is Number One?” Reginald asks, fury in his voice and intimidation in his step. His eyes are locked onto the throng of his children in front of him, each of them glancing worriedly at each other.

“You are not supposed to leave the house.” Reginald’s voice is deadly calm, “You could get recognized.”

“So?” Future Klaus blurts, unable to stop himself, eyes darting back and forth, searching for the reassuring blue form of Ben. The tension leaks out of his form when Ben slides into the room, staring worriedly at the situation.

Klaus blinks, sure he’s having some sort of deja vu, because another Ben follows behind this Ben, glancing nervously around and twisting his hands through each other. He meets Klaus’ eyes and immediately looks away.

_ Huh,  _ Klaus thinks dizzily,  _ Two Bens. _

He can’t help but be jealous of Five. At least he didn’t have to deal with two of himself.

Actually, at least the rest of them didn’t have to deal with two Fives. 

That would almost be worse.

Reginald raises his eyebrows in a ‘well’ expression as if he expects his children to know exactly where Luther is, which to be honest, he probably does. Past Diego scoffs from where he’s sitting next to Future Luther.

“How are we supposed to know where he is?”

Klaus remembers vaguely that in fact, they all know where the missing siblings are. And from the look on Past Allison’s face she knows that too. She opens her mouth, probably to spill the beans since she had been quite a little snitch when she was younger when Klaus interrupts her.

“I think he’s with Five!”

Reginald’s piercing gaze snaps towards Klaus, and he resists the urge to shrink downwards under the same look his father would give him when he was screaming for the light of day in the mausoleum. 

“Yea,” Klaus taps his finger nails together, “Um. Five wanted to talk to him about something… mathy?”

He doesn’t know how bringing up Five is going to help this situation, but at least it’s partially the truth. But luckily his Vanya catches on.

“They went to a different area of the mansion,” She says, obviously banking on Reginald not searching the literal square block of house for two people, “Said it was private?”

Her voice raises the last word into a question, and Klaus can see Reginald’s eyebrows lift with disbelief. Future Allison cringes visibly at the forced lie. His Ben leans forward, intrigued if Reginald will buy it.

Reginald’s eyes flash and his mouth twitches. For one bated moment, Klaus wonders if he’s going to scream at them or maybe even something worse. But all Reginald does is blink a couple of times and say, “I’ll see that Number One becomes aware of his situation when he arrives home.”

As soon as the words fly out of his mouth, the front door of the mansion opens and the clamor of voices echo throughout the silent halls. Future Ben smacks his forehead. 

_ Same _ , Klaus thinks a bit dizzily. He wonders if he can mentally scream at his brothers to leave again.  _ Hey idiots! Dad is super pissed off! Go back outside!  _

When they ignore him, the loud clamping of shoes getting louder and the voices becoming much clearer, Klaus wishes, not for the first time, that he had literally any other power but his own. 

And Ben’s. Ben’s powers suck.

The first one in the room is Future Diego, carrying a jug of something in his arms. He’s followed by both Five and Luther, although Luther is decked out in pajamas and Five is in full uniform. Luther has a smile on his face, something Klaus hadn’t seen since well… forever. And it wasn’t the fake smile he normally put on either, just a normal happy Luther smile. Klaus hadn’t known how much he missed it until now. The smile drops off his face the instant he sees all the people gathered in the kitchen, including their father, glaring daggers. 

“Oh,” he says, voice small.

“Number One!” barks their father, stepping closer to Luther. The younger Hargreeves takes a step back, almost tripping over his own feet in his haste to get away. Future Diego’s lips thin out and his grip on the jug gets tighter. 

“You are not to leave the mansion at any time! I believe I have made that rule clear! However, today you have done one of the most reckless things imaginable and left the house! Even when I have told you not too!”

Klaus can feel all of them staring at him, which is fair because he leaves the house all the time. But there’s a difference between him, the family disappointment, breaking the rules and Luther, daddy’s golden boy. Reginald doesn’t follow their gazes, so he must be pretty mad. 

“Extra training!” Dad snaps, clearing wanting to end this talk as quickly as possible, “You will take Number Three’s training time today, Number One.” 

Luther tried to protest or even get a word in edgewise, but can’t, frozen under their father’s angry glare. 

A quiet voice from the other side of the room speaks up, “You can’t do that.”

They all whip around, trying to spot who had said the words to their father’s face. The only person they saw in the corner was the the other Luther, but judging from his expression of “I want to die” was probably the one who had said those words. 

Reginald almost spits fire, “You can not tell me what to do in my own house, Number One.”

Luther shrinks backwards, obviously regretting opening his mouth, but his past self stares at him, admiration flooding his gaze. Future Allison furrows her brow. 

The silence after Reginald’s outburst is interrupted by Future Diego, who sets the jug onto the counter. He puts his hands on his hips, reminiscent of a soccer mom that they’d seen in movies, and glowers at their dad.

“If anything, It’s my fault.” He admits, “I asked him to come with us.” He gestures towards Five, who is watching Reginald rather intensely. Diego juts up his chin in a way that’s imitating Reginald’s condescending look, “No one saw us.”

Reginald’s lips twitched, “It doesn’t matter if no one saw you,  _ Number Two _ ,” He places a firm emphasis on Diego’s number as if knowing that Diego hasn’t been addressed like that in years. And judging from the slight flinch from Diego, it worked, “You still disobeyed my rules.”

“Why should I have to obey them in the first place?” Diego challenges, nostrils flaring, “I moved out of here years ago! I made my own life out there! I got a job and shit!”

“Diego,” Five says warningly from where he’s standing near Luther, but Diego’s either ignoring him or he’s too angry to care.

“I had to teach myself that!” Diego spits, getting closer and closer to Reginald’s face, “Cause all you did was keep us in here and expect us to obey just because you told us too. Well guess what?!” He spread his arms like a spokesperson revealing their newest invention, “I’m not going to take orders from the guy who hid in his house like a coward for the rest of his life.”

“Diego,” This time it’s not even Five warning Diego, it’s Vanya, “Stop.”

Diego turns toward her, practically fuming. Vanya for all her credit, doesn’t step backwards or flinch. She meets him head on and with her nose crunched. Young Vanya watches the confrontation between the two in shock, Young Diego carefully side eyes her, considering something in his mind with the flip of his knife.

After a brief exchange between Diego and Vanya’s future selves in which no words were exchanged, only aggressive stares, Diego backs down, marching over to a spot on the table to seat himself down on. Reginald only watches him go with cool indifference.

“It is good to see that you still haven’t gotten control over your temper, Number Two,” he says without any of the sentiment that phrase implies. 

Diego’s fist flings out in a spur of the moment reaction, swinging towards their father with all the force of a man pushed past his limits. There’s a crunching noise as Diego rams his fist into their dad, but as the man falls to the floor, all they can do is stare.

“Dude,” Both Klauses say at the exact same time, with massive grins on their faces as they stare at their unconscious father.

“What the fuck was that Diego?” asks Five from where he’s investigating the coffee jug, “I thought I said to not change anything.”

“I didn’t change much,” Diego replies coyly, “I just wanted him to shut up.”

“That’s fair,” Future Klaus agrees, “He is really annoying.” He turns towards Past Luther with a glimmer in his eyes, “You okay?”

Luther stares at their father, now an unconscious heap on the floor as if he can’t believe his eyes, “Y-y-yea.”

It’s at that moment that Past Diego seems to comprehend what just happened. He places his hands on his head and runs them down his face before his smile widens. He turns to Future Diego with a beam, “That was awesome!”

Diego beams back at his past self before placing a hand on his chest, “Thanks I try.”

Both Allisons and Five roll their eyes simultaneously. Future Vanya stifles a giggle. The other kids stare at their father’s body on the floor in shock. Future Luther blinks and then square his shoulders, “We should probably put him somewhere where he’s not in the way.”

There’s a murmur of agreement but nobody moves to carry out the action, instead the older Hargreeves look at Luther expectantly. He sighs as if he’s used to it and reaches down to pick up their father and get him out of the cramped kitchen. Diego scoops the coffee jug out of the grasp of Five with a smile.

“We got coffee!” The older Hargreeves all head over to the coffee, as though the scent of it prompted them to drink. The younger kids watched, fascinated and intrigued by their adult selves, and now that their father was passed out and laying down somewhere, they could talk freely.

Allison slides up to her future self with an unusual shyness, her hands raking through her hair. 

“Hi,” she says, holding her hand out to her self, not really knowing how to introduce herself. However Future Allison takes it all in stride and grips her hand, waving with her other hand. Allison’s expression flickers as her eyes pass over the neat slice in her future self’s neck, but it’s quickly schooled. 

“This is so awkward,” she blurts not able to hold her tongue. Older Allison’s shoulders shake with silent laughter, and she quickly writes something down.

“I know right?”

The Allisons laugh together before heading over to a couch to chat, past Allison eyeing Future Allison’s dyed locks.

The Diegos have staked out another spot perched on a small armchair near the fireplace, their conversation is heated and fast-paced.

Klaus heads over to the bar to get himself a morning drink, but quickly finds himself ambushed by his future self.

“Hey man.” Future Klaus says, with a wave of his Hello hand. Klaus can see Ben floating behind him with a frown on his lips and his hands shoved into his jacket. All Klaus does is raise an eyebrow at him, but this Ben is evidently more used to being dead because all he does is stick out his tongue and scowl. 

_ Weird _ , Klaus thinks, pouring some tequila into a glass. He can feel his Ben walk through the wall behind him, with a book in his hands. There’s a small disappointed click of the cheek when Ben spots the tequila in his hand.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have tequila this early in the morning?” His future self says with an odd note of concern in his tone. His hands reach out for the bottle, almost as though he knows what Klaus is attempting to do, which he does since he’s already done it before. Klaus hands him the bottle, assuming this Klaus wants the fix as well, but all his future self does is put the bottle away.

“It’s five o clock somewhere,” Klaus remarks snidely and raises the glass to his lips. Future Klaus just groans at him, turning to Ben, “Is this what I was like?”

Future Ben nods solemnly with a smirk playing on his lips. Klaus freezes with an incredulous look at his future self. Future Klaus looks back with a sad look in his gaze. He gently pushes the glass from where it’s hovering around Klaus’s mouth and back onto the table.

“It’s not going to help,” He says, knowing how much his word will affect a seventeen year old kid, “You think it does, you do, but.” He turns his head around to look at the assorted family behind him, “You’ll lose them.Trust me.”

The hollow ache in his words release Klaus’ grip on his tequila. He adjusts himself so that he’s in a more comfortable position to listen. 

“I will?”

Future Klaus’ eyes gleam sadly, “It’s never enough. You’ll start hurting them, just to get your fix. I know you, Klaus and all it does is make them not trust you.” He comes even closer, “Even about Ben.”

Klaus drops his head into his chin, sadly thinking about his ghost of a brother behind him, “Do they learn?” He asks, wondering when his voice got so small.

“Yes,” His future replies, his voice stern, “But it takes so long. It took me getting enlisted for me to get sober after almost seventeen years of being high. I’ve been clean for maybe five days now.”

“Enlisted?” Klaus asks, fear in his voice betraying his youth, “Like in a war?”

“Yea,” Future Klaus tells him, “Granted it was kinda my own fault I was there in the first place, but still…”

“Oh,” Klaus’s head falls in shame, “It gets that bad?”

“Yea,” Ben finally speaks up from where he’s behind Klaus. His brown eyes are filled with emotion, “We’re only intervening now because Klaus and I don’t want you to deal with all that shit.”

He seems to realize that swearing is unusual for him for this version of Klaus because he grins, “It comes with time.” He winks at past Ben.

“Oh,” Klaus murmurs, feeling small. He stares at the drink his hand before setting down the drink on the counter, “Maybe we should just..”

“Not do that!” Future Klaus says brightly, clapping his hands together with a smile, “I’ll help you!”

Klaus blinks, startled, “Help me with what?” 

“I have no idea how to control my powers without getting high either. So we can figure this out together!” Future Klaus takes his past self’s hands with a smile, “I’ll ask Five to help us. He’s smart.”

Klaus’s hands rub circles into the other’s palm and he turns his gaze around his future self to look at the others behind them. A shaky smile forms on his face, “No mausoleum trips right?”

“Hell no,” Ben and Klaus say at the same time.Past Klaus grins wider, “Great.”

Klaus meets the gaze of Vanya from across the hall. She’s watching him with a sad look, left out and abandoned. He can’t help but feel bad for her, since she’s standing in the middle of the room with her hands wringing. He motions for her to come over and talk to him, a gesture that he hoped was received kindly at least. She doesn’t move from her spot and only shakes her head, her eyes looking at her own future self. Future Vanya is seated on the couch, her hands wrapped around a coffee cup. Next to her is Five, absently looking around the room.

Oh.

She’s nervous.

Klaus moves around his future self to go to her and help her, try to go over to the two people he knows she wants to talk to more than anything.

He never makes it all the way over to her, because the front door slams open.

A man steps over the threshold of the house, clothed in all black and carrying the biggest weapon he’s ever seen in his life.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” says the man, cocking his gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Some secrets are revealed.


	8. clamor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just fighting!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SorRY i HAveNt UPdaTEd
> 
> LoTS oF scHOOlwORK
> 
> (seriously tho)

For one solid second that seemed to stretch into eternity, no one moved. The man that had just entered the front door stood in the opening, waiting for some sort of signal and the Hargreeves remained frozen in shock.

Then the clattering of gunfire went off and the older and younger Hargreeves scattered, abandoning their father, who remained in a coma on the couch. Younger Vanya darts behind the couch that her older self and Five are crouched behind, in both an attempt to save herself and an excuse to get near the two people she was wary about talking to. She presses herself to the back of the couch, feeling Five’s shoulder against her as he complains about budget cuts.

Wait, what?

“It’s good that it’s just Dayton here right now,” He says flippantly, as if the man firing at them in their living room is just another inconvenience in his already tedious day, “If his entire squad shows up then we’re in trouble.”

Vanya can’t help the small giggle that erupts out of her, “His name is Dayton?”

Five gives her a lopsided grin that doesn’t quite meet his eyes, “Yep.”

“W-w-w,” she stammers out unable to comprehend. Her voice is cut off however by a pained shout from across the room, followed by cursing.

“Everyone ok?” calls her future self, her eyes soft and worried. She’s gripping onto Five’s jacket. Whether unconsciously or not, Vanya’s not sure, but she wishes that she felt comfortable around her brother to do that as well.

“I got shot!” shouts a gruff voice that she doesn’t exactly recognize, “Because I was being stupid!”

“Not stupid,” groans a younger voice that she does recognize and her heart drops into her stomach. Diego.

Five scowls from where he’s crouched next to her, running his hands together. Vanya notes his tensed posture and quick-darting eyes. She’s never seen her siblings in action up close before and this whole experience is frankly bizarre. Dayton growls from where he’s just standing there in the middle of the hall.

“Number Five, I don’t want to make this more bloody than it has to be,” He calls, “Come out and surrender before the rest of the Cleaners get here.”

“Cleaners?” shouts another voice back that isn’t Five’s. Her future self snickers from besides her before the voice has even finished their sentence, “That makes you sound like you guys are a bunch of house cleaners or something.”

Dayton snarls before swinging the weapon upward and firing at ceiling. A small cloud of dust falls onto the floor as the plaster on the ceiling breaks. A small noise from behind the smaller side of the couch tells Vanya that’s where Klaus is hiding.

Her brother, Diego, groans in pain and Vanya wants to run to him and help press down on the wound at his side. After all, The only person in her way is Dayton, who’s boredly scanning the area, waiting for Five to announce himself. Her brother shifts next to her, his teeth gritting together. Her older self frowns from next to him and Vanya can see her hand pulling at Five’s jacket, keeping him in position.

“The rest of Cleaners will arrive soon, Five,” calls Dayton, his voice dull, “You should probably either surrender now or die when the others get here.”

“Fuck,” Five whispers next to her, turning his head to look at older Vanya, objectively ignoring her. Vanya hates it. He’s ignoring her. She’s wanted nothing but for Five to be with her again, to be her friend, her only sibling who actually gave back the love she tried to hand them, even if his methods were a bit skewed.

And now he’s ignoring her.

Vanya knows exactly what she has to do.

She rises to her feet, hands shaking at her side. Five doesn’t even look at her, eyeing the chandelier that dangled high above Dayton’s head. Her older self follows his gaze, also blind to the danger Vanya’s about the throw herself into.

Once Vanya takes the first step to dart across the room towards the injured Diego, it all goes to shit. The chandelier explodes suddenly, raining crystals down upon them and the ear splitting shattering of tinkling glass. Vanya doesn’t know who screams, probably herself, taking the opportunity to bolt. Her shiny shoes flash as she runs towards the couch she knows Diego is behind, sliding next to her older self with a flourish.

He gapes at her, with the same dopey expression her Diego sometimes gets when shocked. She smiles at him, trying to offset his confusion as she presses her hands on her Diego’s chest. Older Diego’s simple confusion, however shifts to a more frazzled rage.

“What were you thinking?” He asks her, moving his larger hands so that they’re placed on top of hers. She can’t really hear what he’s saying because when he speaks the fight behind them breaks out. She can hear the arrival of the other gunman sound off, their guns roaring. 

She shakes her head, pointing to the fight behind him and he swears loudly, words he’s probably learned after leaving. He flinches visibly, his hands twitching as he thought about swinging a knife into the fray, but he doesn’t take his hands off his past self.

“That was so stupid,” He hisses at her, sweat dripping down his face, “That was so fucking stupid, Vanya.”

She blanches backwards, shaken to her core at his tone, “I just wanted to he-.”

“You could’ve been killed! Shot dead! If you had gotten hit,” His eyes are steely, but he doesn’t finish his thought, instead glaring at her more, “ Why didn’t you wait until we’d gotten that guy out of the living room?”

A piercing scream sounds to their left, but neither Vanya or Diego look to see who had made it, too concentrated on keeping the now unconscious younger Diego alive. The scream tears through the air again, this time more angry. Vanya forces herself to keep her gaze on Diego. He raises his chin, “Keep your hands on me.”

He stands up, stance rigid before chucking a knife into the throng of people over the couch. Vanya uses the floor to shove her hands down on her brother's chest, blood seeping through her fingers.

The plonk of steel hitting flesh is heard before Diego drops back down to help her save his own life. 

She exhales shakily, in and out, timing herself along with the rise and fall of her brother’s chest. She’s trying to help him, she tells herself, by sheer force of will. If she breathes calmly, her brother will follow. Diego adjusts his grip, pressing down harder with one hand while he fumbles in his pocket with the other, pulling out a long black strand. 

“It’s not much,” he says tiredly, “But I can slow the bleeding with this.” His eyes land on her scuffled appearance and bloodied hands, “We need Mom.” 

Vanya jerks slightly, ready to run and go find Mom for him, that’s all she’s good for anyways. Another noise goes off behind them, this time a roar of a thousand voices. Both her and Diego stop and release their hold. Diego slightly bounces on his heels enough to see what’s going on, before beginning to pick up his younger self. Vanya watches him numbly, to scared to look beyond the couch. 

“What’s going on?” She asks, rising to her feet as Diego prepared to take himself to their mother. Diego doesn’t even answer, already rushing down the hallway away from the battle in the living room. But Vanya stands there, transfixed by the image in front of her.

Her siblings are sprawled across the room, each in various places. From where she’s standing older Luther is fighting someone with two small guns in their hands. Younger Allison and Luther are pulling stuff from off the walls, following Dad’s instructions for how to fight inside. Five and Younger Klaus are nowhere to be seen. But Vanya can see her older self point at someone and smash them into a wall. She whoops in triumph before spinning around for the next person.

It’s not even that that freezes Vanya in her place and makes her do a double-take, although it is close. 

It’s the soft blue-glowing figure in the middle of the room, right next to older Klaus. The figure doesn’t look like much from where Vanya’s standing, but she can see those tentacles spiraling out of the stomach area of the person and in her heart she knows.

Klaus’ hands are glowing blue and he’s on the floor, blood dripping down his face into his ear, but he shouts just as the ghost of Ben shreds the nearest gunman. Blood spatters across the room and onto the walls and Vanya realizes with a sickening feeling that she’s never seen Ben in action before.

This is the most disturbing thing she’s ever seen.

She watches the monsters tear into the next person, unaware of Younger Klaus being dragged out of the tentacles path of destruction by Five. Klaus and Five stumble backwards together, Five wrapped around Klaus. As soon as they fall away from the tentacles, Klaus is hugging Five, who just awkwardly pats Klaus’ head, his face twisted in confusion.

Older Allison beams from her corner, her face coated in sweat and Vanya’s own older self even backed away, albeit a bit demurely.

Their reactions are nothing compared to Vanya’s siblings’ own though. Luther watches from besides the bookcase, eyes wide and body frozen. He blames himself for Ben’s death, they all knew that, so she can only imagine how he’s feeling right now. Allison stumbles away from the person she’s fighting, blood flecked on her lips and a smirk on her face. She’s distracted by the appearance of Ben, so much so that she’s bashed backwards with a shout.

Oh yeah, everyone seems to realize at the same time, we’re still fighting.

Immediately, chaos erupts once again and Vanya flies to the floor, pressing her hands over her ears. She lugs herself across the floor in an army crawl, something Five and Ben has taught her before they were both gone. Above her fly rounds of bullets, almost never ceasing. 

_ Wait. _

_ Don’t guns run out? _

A gun has to reload. It’s something that was written on one of the posters outside of the hallway she shares with her siblings. Never mind the disturbing implications of all of that, she now knows how to help her family.

Vanya sticks her head up to look around and immediately has to put it back down again as one of Ben’s tentacles wove around. There’s a sickening crunch as the tentacle tears into something or someone and Vanya has to place a hand over her mouth, simply so she wouldn’t lose her breakfast all over the floor.

“Five, where are these bastards coming from?” roars Adult Luther, head swirling around for Five. 

Said person appears right behind the man Luther is fighting, swinging a mace that had been stashed in the nearby antique collection. The mace connects with a wet thump and the person goes down. Five carefully drops the mace on the floor before speaking, “They’re the Cleaners. They’re responsible for cleaning up errors in the timeline that Assassins leave behind. Witnesses, checks all that shit.”

He can’t finish because Luther’s being attacked again and Five moves to help him, trying to maneuver his small body around both Luther and the Cleaner simultaneously. Nearby is another shout as Klaus gets pinned down by another, Ben stopping his widespread attack to focus more on the one guy. Young Klaus is now near Young Allison, using a book to fend off her attacker.

“Look!” Vanya can hear him shouting, “Education!” The book is thrown into the face of the Cleaner, who doesn’t even blink, instead pawing at the book.

“Nice one, Mini-Me!” 

“Thanks Old Me!”

Vanya can’t help but smile at the sputters from the direction of older Klaus. She can see him slightly from where she’s laying on the floor, bouncing around. What she isn’t prepared for is him, sweeping a guy off of their feet and kicking them towards Ben, before going back to bouncing. The Cleaner that Klaus had doomed barely gets a moment to process before they're ripped to shreds.

It’s in that brief moment of clarity that she spots a heavy black duffel bag, guarded by Dayton himself. He’s got the most intimidating looking weapon, the most intimidating face and in general, just seems like a nasty guy overall. But the bag at his feet looks important and just as Vanya thinks that, Dayton tosses one of his companions a small golden box that was inside the bagg.

Seconds later, that person’s gun goes off again, sending her future self to using the white light she’s apparently  _ controlling,  _ to guard the nearby Young Allison.

Yea, Vanya’s going to need to ask herself about that later.

But for now, she’s got a mission!

Her hands are still stained with the blood of Diego and for the first time, she wonders if Older Diego was able to find Mom in time. It’s stressful to her to think that this is the first time she’s contemplated that since he left. She hopes Diego’s ok, because the last thing she wants is another sibling gone.

_ Or really another two,  _ says the evil little voice in her head,  _ since if Diego dies then the other one dies too.  _ She shakes her head.

She can’t afford to think about that now.

She begins her long journey to the duffel bag, grunting in exertion as she slowly pulls herself across the now slick with blood floor. The entire front of her uniform is messy, to the point where she’s ready to cry about it, but as her lip wobbles and the tears threaten to spill out of the sides of her cheeks, she presses onwards.

Above her is the clamor of battle, bullets singing and the shattering of dishes. She can see out of the corner of her eye that although the battle had been self-contained for a while, it is now spilling into the winding hallways of the Academy as the Cleaners numbers diminished. 

Good news for the others, but not for her since she’s going to take their ammo.

Older Allison is gone at this point, pursuing a group of Cleaners that had tried to make a run for it. Vanya can still hear her heels on the floor above them. Five’s stopped teleporting, he’s instead using his size to his advantage, throwing off a Cleaner’s balance with his abrupt movements before going in for the kill.

Ben is flickering in the middle of the hall and Klaus looks about ready to drop, but he continues on. He’s now partnered with his younger self, the only time during the entire battle something like that has happened and is currently showing him how to work a rifle.

That won’t bite them in the ass later.

Vanya still is not sure whether it’s safe for her to stand so she doesn’t, but does get on her hands and knees to make this entire situation a bit easier on herself. This way she can get to her destination a lot faster and she’s not getting smeared with blood on her way over. 

She doesn’t feel the hand on her collar until she’s forced upwards and cool metal is placed to her head.

“Don’t move or I shoot the ordinary one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof


	9. shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, throwing away the vague plot idea I had for the angst: PARKOUR
> 
> special thanks to hujwernoo for giving me this trainwreck of an idea and letting me steal it. I love you.

Honestly, the battle had been going pretty decently until little Vanya got a gun pulled on her. Sure Klaus was drained in every part of his body, and his limbs screamed everytime he stopped moving, but that was all part of the excitement. Still, he’d been able to summon Ben to contribute to the death toll, and Klaus considered their efforts to be conjoined so THERE. 

He hadn’t been a part of fighting since the Icarus Theater though, and he couldn’t help the small pang every time he saw Vanya’s white powers flash. Memories of the moon barreling towards them and energy stabbed directly into his chest, yanking out something he had never been able to describe but suddenly couldn’t live without.

He wondered if Allison hadn’t been there, if he would’ve died again. But something told him that without that feeling in his chest that Vanya had tried to draw out, he wouldn’t have been able to come back like last time in the club.

Back to the present, Klaus told himself as the guy pressed the gun harder into little Vanya’s head. Blood was smeared across her palms and all down the front of her dress, she must have tried to escape. The once loud noises of fighting were gone, as both Hargreeves families stared at the impossible situation in front of them, none of them sure exactly what to do.

Diego is nowhere to be seen and Klaus can vaguely recall him running off to go find Mom, typical. Allison is also absent as well as her younger self, who’d chased after her, determined to help.

That leaves both Luthers, who are both frozen with the exact same expression on their faces, Vanya, her eyes glowing so bright that Klaus can’t help by wonder if she also got laser eyes with her onslaught of powers, Five, the smallest of them all and slick with blood since he had resorted to fighting with nearby appliances after his powers had run low, and finally Klaus and his mini, One too drained to do much of anything and the other too high, most likely.

Oh and Dad. 

He’s still asleep.

Somehow.

That man can sleep through anything. Klaus should know.

Five speaks first, his voice raspy, “Dayton, drop the gun. You’re vastly outnumbered.”

Klaus looks back at the assassin in front of him pressing a gun to his little sister’s head and tries not to laugh. Dayton? 

Actually he might’ve hooked up with a couple of Daytons in his life.

Dayton grins, all teeth and jabs the gun a bit harder, “I can still take out the ordinary one before I go Number Five.”

“You wouldn’t do that,” Five says with steel, somehow sounding authoritative with his voice on the edge of collapse, “The Commission would kill you for ruining the timeline.”

Vanya’s eyes widen from where she’s trapped in the grip of a homicidal maniac. She must realize that Five’s bargaining with her life at this point. Klaus’ Mini speaks from behind him, obviously realizing just how dire this situation is.

Dayton comes to the same conclusion as well, that he can’t hurt any of them without fucking up the entire timeline more than Five already has. His eyes grow wider and more wild. His entire fucking eye twitched, something Klaus has only seen happen on people that were absolutely tripping balls.

“They’ll make an exception,” He says with a snarl, clicking the gun against Vanya’s head, “They will as long as I get you.”

Vanya shudders against the gun, fidgeting to try and get out of his grip on her arm, but Klaus already knows there’s no way she’s getting out of this.

Ben is over by Vanya, trying to see if Klaus has any more reserves for his connection to the living world to take hold, but Klaus is utterly exhausted.

So exhausted that all at once, a crazy, almost insane idea pops into his head.

Well.

It’s all they’ve got.

* * *

At the end of it all, no one is exactly sure what happened. Only by the sound of the ringing gunshot, Vanya is safe, fallen onto the floor. Dayton’s running away, trying to get a head start on them and Klaus is dead.

_ Klaus is dead. _

And Vanya’s sobbing and apologizing on her bloody knees, near her brother’s body and Klaus is dead.

Finally, with an ear splitting shriek resembling the wailing of some ghost in the woods, the other Vanya realizes what’s just happened.

Five is stone still, eyes far away, back in the fiery end at age thirteen. 

Even as high as he is, the younger Klaus is staring at something only he can see, a ghost of himself. He giggles quietly, not to disturb the others but now he knows..

It’ll be ok.

Luther is kneeling by Klaus’s side, trying to pump life back into his brother, flooded with memories he doesn’t even know he had of his brother on the floor of a club, music pumping and people screaming as he lay on the floor unmoving.

It’s quiet, so devastatingly quiet. The only sounds in the room are the sobs from Vanya and the panicked breaths of Luther and faint gunshots as the Allisons and Diego continue the battle, unaware. Five falls down with a thump that echoes forever, reduced back to thirteen and seeing his brother’s body for the first time. Younger Luther is now near his older self, pulling Vanya away, tears running down his face at the thought of never seeing his brother again, even if the one who was gone was older. 

He’s remembering something so similar that happened only six months ago. A brother in a pool of his own blood and himself, trying to grasp onto the faint string of life that he had been offered and watching as the cold mask of death seeped onto his brother’s features.

He can feel Vanya underneath him, quietly sobbing and trying to pull him closer to herself. So he complies, holding his sister in a tight hug and relishing her warmth.

Will all his siblings slip away like this?

Obviously not because the future is here with them, but the future is also dead and with them and this whole thing is just so confusing. 

He remembers the conversation with Five and Diego in the diner only this morning, and wonders how things could have gone from such an amazing high, all the way down here.

Another body joins their clump and Luther doesn’t have to look to know it’s Klaus. His Klaus, the warm alive one and not the one laying on the floor surrounded by their older selves as they try to save him.

Luther wonders how Klaus must feel right now, Knowing now that this is how it ends for him.

It’s when Klaus wraps around him for a hug that his older self speaks, the first words since the dreadful gunshot had gone off, “He’s gone.”

Somewhere, far away in the house, another gunshot goes off and they all flinch together. Older Vanya is now sobbing, just as hard as her younger self is, her piercing white eyes faded back into brown.

Five is completely gone at this point, babbling to himself about digging a grave and burying Klaus in the morning. None of them move to get any closer to him, all caught up in their own grief to pay much attention to the quite concerning comments from Five.

Footsteps echo down the hall as someone approaches the grieving siblings, none of them even caring if it’s the enemy or an ally. No one looks up when Diego enters the room again, a knife drawn and ready to launch himself into battle. He stops in confusion when seeing all of them on the floor, scattered into various piles. 

“What the…”

They can all hear when he sees Klaus’s body curled near Luther’s feet because his stutter kicks in, “K-k-klaus?”

He’s over by Luther in a second, knife clattering to the floor and pressing toe of his fingers to Klaus’s neck to try and feel for the beat of life. When there’s nothing he turns on Luther, “W-w-what h-h-ha-pp-pened?”

Luther shakes his head unable to speak, but Diego is insistent, finally finding his voice again, “What the fuck happened?!” When Luther can’t answer again, he whirls around onto the pile of kids in the corner, sobbing, “What that fuck happened?”

It’s Older Vanya, who finally answers, her voice whispery and hoarse from her scream, “He took a bullet for me… for.. My past self…” She waves faintly at the kids, “He.. he.. He.” She dissolves back into sobs. Diego falls to his knees next to Luther and tries to wake Klaus up.

“Wake up Klaus. You absolute asshole.” His voice is quivering, on the brink of collapse, “Wake up right now, so I can scream at you. Wake up.” His voice fades away, “ Wake up, dickwad.”

The sounds of fighting have gone and faded into the background, as if the house had gone numb from losing one of its own. All sounds, the tears, whispers and quiet creak of the floorboards are floating through the air as if through water. 

The Hargreeves are in mourning.

It doesn’t last as long as they hoped though, because after a couple of minutes, a sharp voice speaks from the couch.

“Get up off of the floor,” snaps a familiar and widely hated voice. All the Hargreeves turn to see their father, standing up, with a gigantic purple bruise on his face and still managing to look impeccable douchey. Their father’s eyes narrow at the his closest kid, who just happened to be Five.

“Number Five!’ He barks, so loudly in the sad silence of the house that it jolts Five out of whatever apocalyptic flash back he’s having, “Get off the floor. You must remain on your feet.”

A Five in his right frame of mind would’ve shot back some angry comment that rendered people speechless, but this Five, just coming out of a flashback, is numb. He clambers to his feet, shaking so hard that it looks like he might collapse back down at any moment and stands, staring at his brother’s body is silence.

“The rest of you, follow Number Five’s lead and get up!”

It’s amazing how their father, the man they all despised could unite them all in. The familiarity of being yelled at by him, even as their brother lay on the floor is oddly comforting to the point where they all rise to their feet, numb and some of them still letting silent tears drip down.

Reginald barely looks down at Klaus’s body when he moves, “Where is Number Three?

They all watch him, numbly and most not even surprise that their dad would care so little about one of them dying. For a couple of them, this scene is a simple recall of the same one that had occurred only a few months earlier when Ben died. For the older ones, it’s just a painful, bitter reminder of just how absolutely fucked up their childhood was. 

They stand up, scattered across the room as their father shouts, “Look at you all! You’re a mess! Why can’t the Umbrella Academy, the team of superheroes I  _ specifically  _ trained to catch criminals, capture these ones without losing another team member?” 

It’s when he says those words that Reginald Hargreeves finally looks at Klaus’ body on the floor and the only expression he can achieve is cool indifference. 

“There are still people in this house,” he says, tapping his cane in disappointment like he always does, “Your brother’s loss does not change this. Get them out.”

All of them are numb, hollow. They don’t know what to do, how to function. The only thing that is constant in their world right now, is their father, barking out orders and never showing emotion.

They still don’t move.

“I said, now!” 

The Older Hargreeves don’t move, but the younger ones do, shuffling to leave the room where their brother is laying dead.

Luther speaks, voice quiet, but he places emphasis on the word, “No.”

The younger Hargreeves freeze, all silent, as Luther, typically seen as the compliant one, straightens himself up and says it a bit stronger, “No.”

“Number One?” Reginald asks, disbelief in his tone, “What are you saying?”

“I used to think that you cared.” Luther begins, hands shaking and eyes looking everywhere but directly at his father, “Probably because you saved my life or you put me above everyone else. But after this, and after everything that’s happened to me” He pauses, looking at Diego, “To us.”

He inhales and starts again, “I should’ve realized this after Ben. Hell, I should’ve realized it so much earlier than I did. You don’t care.”

Reginald blinks, almost in a baffled way as he realizes he’s lost control of this situation. The Younger Hargreeves aren’t smiling per say, but they are staring at Luther in the sort of admiration that can only come from shared grief and hatred of a singular figure.

“Klaus is dead and you don’t care.”

The admission that their brother is gone, just like Ben and they’ll never see him again is awful and heart-stopping. They can’t even speak after that, all silent and broken.

The smattering of applause behind them startled them out of the stupor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me , dodging all the angry comments and the thoughts that I could've written this a million times better: PARKOUR


	10. awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus wakes up. 
> 
> Klaus gets abducted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had two mental breakdowns this week and then changed my font in the drafts of this, forgot I did that, then had another one trying to remember if I did it or someone else did?
> 
> i've also remembered how bad I am at pacing because if you recall, all of the last like... three chapters has taken place in one day.
> 
> basically i have no chill.

_ You know you really need to stop coming here. _

_ It’s getting so aggravating. _

_ You need to be alive for this to work. _

_ You’re the person who can bring them together. _

_ Stop dying. _

_ You’re bad at it anyways. _

And Klaus woke up.

His head was throbbing, in a painfully familiar way, His body was too light, each of his limbs quivering with the odd release of gravity. The room spun and Klaus was pretty sure he could hear an airplane flying above him, or at least a really loud bird. 

“I used to think you cared,” said a voice that Klaus can vaguely remember belonging to someone he knows.

“Probably because you saved my life or you put me above everyone else. But after this, and after everything that’s happened to me” A pause, “To us.”

To us, Klaus thought, cheek still pressed against the floor, something warm leaking around his hips. He’s pretty sure it’s his own blood.

To us. 

Us. 

It’s the first time he’s ever heard Luther acknowledge any sort of negative impact on their messed-up little family, much less on himself. Even laying on the floor, possibly naked if the weird energy in the room is anything to go off of, Klaus felt a surge of pride.

Luther’s still talking, his voice tinged with the same rage that Klaus remembers him having during his mental break almost a week earlier, except it’s a thousand times more coherent and focused. He can slightly feel the presence of the others around him. He's pretty sure the younger ones are on his left, but other than that, there’s basically no one around him.

Klaus carefully lifts his head off of the bloodied floor. As he does, he can hear a relieved sob from someone practically on top of him. His eyes pry open to see Ben’s ghostly visage above him, tears down his face. 

Klaus doesn’t ever think he’s seen Ben as a ghost cry before. It’s actually really bizzare looking, the tears seem to leave glowing tracks down his cheeks.

Klaus smiles at his brother and then whispers, “I think I might’ve pissed off God.”

Ben blinks, startled out of his tears before he smiles, watery and broken. He kneels down next to Klaus’ body laying on the floor, glowing blue hand sinking down through Klaus’s. 

“You might’ve pissed off a couple more people than that,” He says, his voice so shaky it somehow managed to sound calm. The tears continue to drip down the sides of his cheeks and his hand quivers slightly at his side. 

“I thought you had joined me,” Ben says, his voice cracking, “I saw you rise up.” More tears fall, this time staining the ground in front of Klaus. He keeps his eyes on Ben, guilt in his bones. Klaus reaches for Ben’s face, trying to wipe the tears away.

It doesn’t work.

Ben laughs slightly, the laughter lines on his face folding in, before he waves Klaus’s hand away. Their arms clip through each other and Klaus can’t help but feel disappointed that they didn’t touch.

Luther is still talking, still going strong. Now that Klaus is awake, he can see his siblings standing around him, each a million miles away. Diego is the closest, about three feet away. Out of all of them, it should’ve been him that noticed Klaus stirring, but he’s too concentrated on Luther at the moment, furious tear tracks on his face.

The kids are curled around each other, in a state of shock. Vanya buried in the middle and Luther holding her close in a position that Klaus finds awfully familiar. The other kid in the pile is himself, baby Klaus, who meets his eyes with large green ones. Klaus shoots him a smile, not dissimilar to the one he showed him as a ghost for a brief stint of time. 

Baby Klaus glowers at him, something he wasn’t expecting. He’s fine, isn’t he? Why would his younger self be angry?

It isn’t till Baby Klaus breaks his gaze away and tightens his grip around his siblings that Klaus comes to the realization that he probably traumatized a bunch of already mentally strained seventeen year olds.

His guilt only increases when he turns his gaze to the two furthest away, Five and Vanya. Vanya’s eyes are pure white, she’s practically steaming the air. He can tell she’s trying to hold herself back, based on her expression but it’s a losing battle. The air around her shimmers with light and heat.

Five is completely gone, barely able to stand. He’s locked in something Klaus can’t see but recognizes the symptoms of, thanks to his magical time in Vietnam. It’s not necessarily that part that scares Klaus the most, though that is very high up there.

It’s how close Five is to Vanya. He’s too deep in his own head to notice the brewing storm, and the danger of that cements itself in Klaus’ mind.

All of this, the entire scenario is evaluated by Klaus in less than a minute. 

Luther concludes his speech to Dad with a flourish. In the stunned silence that follows his rage fueled words is only silence, so Klaus comes up with a solution that both rewards his brother for finally telling their father off and alerting everyone to his presence and easing the situation.

He begins to clap.

The sounds echo throughout the silence of the hall and Klaus can’t help but be delighted by the sheer wonder on everyone’s faces when they turn around to see him. 

Klaus waves at them with his “Hello” hand and beams into the stunned silence that follows. 

After a second a knife is flung at his head, missing by only an inch. Klaus can feel the wind from the force of the throw as Diego’s hand falls to his side.

“WHAT THE FUCK?” He shouts, almost hysterical, “KLAUS WHAT THE FUCK?”

The others near him begin to move around, each trying to land their eyes on their brother, to comprehend the fact that a member of the family presumed dead was now moving. Klaus slowly begins to stand up, awkwardly brushing at the blood staining his whole shirt. He’s interrupted by a thump against his whole body as Diego flings himself into him, arms wrapped around his waist and a weird noise coming from his chest.

Startled by the rush of affection from his normally stoic brother, Klaus takes a second to relish the fact that Diego’s actually displaying open affection before reciprocating. Allowing Diego to be buried into his shoulder, head pressed hard into Klaus. 

He hums sadly and moves to untangle himself from Diego’s hold, to catch a glimpse of the others that are now crawling closer, unable to believe that he’s ok. Luther has a smile on his face, something that Klaus hasn’t seen on him in years, but there’s something else in his expression, regret, that has no place there.

Five’s face is pale and dull. He stares at Klaus numbly, borderline uncomfortably, eyelashes fluttering.

The younger siblings rush over, each loud and questioning. The only one who doesn’t is younger him, head cocked and listening to something. It’s most likely younger Ben since Klaus can see him in the corner, muttering.

His dad doesn’t say anything, and Klaus prefers it that way.

Above them, the clattering of gunshots stops.

No one appears to notice, so Klaus sends Ben a look, sending his brother on a scouting trip to make sure that the ceasefire is a good thing rather than a bad one. He hopes the former. Ben leaves the room with a sweep, unknowingly followed by Five, who probably had the same idea.

Diego finally releases Klaus from their hug, and his arms rush with warmth again as the blood flows back into his body. He shakes a bit and then speaks, “Awww, do you care about me, Diego?”

“You fucker,” Diego punches him in the arm, then realizes that he’s punching someone who wasn’t breathing a bit ago and begins to pat him down, “Don’t ever do that again.”

Klaus moves a bit as Diego’s hands trail down his arms, the fabric soft, “Do what exactly?”

Diego’s eyelids flutter and he's close enough to Klaus, that he can hear the small exhale that tumbled out of his mouth. He immediately regrets asking the loaded question but Diego manages to force out a reply, voice slurred and sticky, “Don’t.”

Another hand clasps his and he looks down to see Vanya’s younger self, cheeks stained and nose red, gazing up at him. Her eyes water with unshed tears and she mumbles something to him that he can;t really hear. He asks her to repeat herself.

“You shouldn’t have done that for me. I’m not worth it.”

Klaus realizes that she whole-heartedly believes that as soon as the words come out of her mouth and before he knows it, he’s leaning down to her level and brushing some of her wet hair that had stuck to her forehead out of her face, “Of course you are Van. It’s like I said. We don’t hate you.”

Despite the lightheadedness he’s feeling, the smile that forms on Vanya’s face is absolutely worth it. The tears in her eyes add an extra shimmer and she appears genuinely happy to be there. Klaus can’t help but feel a small pang in his heart, seeing his sister so different than how he remembers her being in their teenage years. Granted, he was high for most of it, but the point still stands.

He pulls her into a hug. 

She’s small, as small as Five, but unlike him, she folds easily into the hug and crunches his shirt in her hands as he sways her back and forth. Klaus can feel the others around them, gathering closer, wanting to be a part of this circle of emotions and openness, but held back by the stern gaze of their father, watching.

Speaking of.

Reginald Hargreeves remains stock-still behind them all, waiting impatiently for their display to be over. He’s not saying anything or even rushing them to hurry, but it’s still a million times worse than him speaking and soon enough, like clockwork, the younger Hargreeves look at him. Even Vanya untangles herself from Klaus’ grip to make sure she at least met the requirement of always giving Reginald Hargreeves the time of day.

Even Younger Ben, who’s a ghost, does it out of deeply ingrained habit.

The older ones don’t. 

Maybe it’s the shock of Klaus being dead for almost ten whole minutes, maybe it was Luther’s speech, maybe it was watching Vanya fight off the Cleaners and realizing that  _ yes,  _ if given proper training she could’ve been a Umbrella Academy member, maybe it was a combination of all three and the immediate realization that their week from hell would’ve never happened if Reginald Hargreeves was a good parent in the first place.

Instead they look at Luther.

Luther doesn’t notice it for a second, too zoned out on something in his memory, but when he does notice Vanya, Klaus and Diego all looking at him, he straightens himself up and draws himself to full size and says, “Let’s find the others.” 

All they have is each other and right now, two of them are gone. Technically three, but Ben is just invisible.

Reginald doesn’t notice them leaving until they actually move, too busy berating the kids for ‘being incompetant enough to let Vanya get held hostage in the first place.” It’s when younger Vanya begins to watch them go that he does, but his demands aren’t enough for them to stay.

The kids only watch in shock when their older selves leave, too ingrained in their habits to even think of walking out while their father was talking. It would get them punished or worse, more training.

And none of them wanted that.

They turn back to their father as his carefully fixes his composure and begins again, “I am immensely disappointed in all of you.” He pauses, inviting an opportunity to speak, but no one takes it. They know the consequences if they do.

“Your future selves are worse than I could’ve possibly imagined. I’ve never seen such a degree of unorganization and stupidity in all my years of training you lot. Number One is not leading the others, Number Two is letting his emotions take over, Number Three is unable to use her power, Number Four is so uncoordinated that he gets himself shot in the middle of a fight,and Number Seven somehow got the idea in her head that she is necessary in combat.” Reginald shouts, gesturing with his cane in the direction that their older selves went in, “Not to mention Number Five cannot control his powers well enough to avoid them even being here in the first place.” He pretends not to notice their collective flinching each time he says their numbers with venom.

“You will not become them,” Reginald tells them with finality, “I will make sure of that.”

They shift uncomfortably, not sure what to do with this information. These people in their house are them, their future? How can their father, as powerful as he is, change something so set in stone?

“Your personal training sessions will double in both length and amount,” Reginald barks, “Number Four, you are up first.”

Klaus freezes in place, legs quivering. He looks about ready to bolt, but can’t. Fear of what would happen if he was caught keeping him in place. He nods in compliance, mind spinning, “Ok.”

What he doesn’t expect is his father reaching for him instantly and wrenching him away from his siblings and their muffled protests and tugging him towards the all too familiar door to the courtyard. His arm screams from the pain and all Klaus can think about is  _ escape.  _

He wiggles his arm around, trying to find the loophole in his dad’s grip so that he can get out and be with his siblings again, but it’s to no avail as Dad shoves him out the door, turning around to shout at the remaining siblings in the house. 

“Clean up the mess your future selves made!” 

Klaus can’t swallow, his throat swollen in fear. His father turns to look at him, eyes cold and unfeeling, lip curled. Instantly, Klaus knows his dad has been pushed to his limits. 

He’s been punched, knocked unconscious and walked out on by the future.

It only makes sense that this is how he would cope with that. 

As Klaus is dragged to the car, digging his nails into the dirt in an attempt to make this experience as much of a living hell for his father as it was for him. His father only pulls him harder across the cement.

Klaus is met with the same feeling he’d gotten when his older self had miraculously risen from the puddle of his own blood, like some sort of demented Jesus. His siblings, even if they didn't know the future version of himself, did know him and the thought of him being gone, not dissimilar to what happened to Ben almost six months ago, had surely broken them.

They’d both clung to him so hard he couldn’t breathe, much like the corpse on the floor.

He hated that he had made his siblings feel that way. He’d seen their reactions, messy and sobbing and just an overall catastrophe in general.

He never wanted to be the cause of all that suffering. 

The door to the car opens, dark and bleak, and Klaus has no choice but to step inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like beating up Klaus.
> 
> Apparently?


	11. reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus takes a nap, Five and Vanya chat and Reginald becomes a very awful person (not that he wasn't already one)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm binge-watching Victorious and all the sudden! This chapter was finished!! Isn't that great!!!
> 
> Um... Klaus fans.. I'm sorry guys. I always beat up Five and now it's his turn to get some angst.
> 
> On the bright side, Vanya gets a spotlight in this chapter!

The hallways of the mansion were silent. Not that that was unusual, the mansion was always quieter than most places, the large walls eating up sounds. But after the loud crashing and bullet noises of the last twenty or so minutes, the quiet was awful, deadly and stone cold. 

Not dissimilar to the sound of a graveyard. 

Klaus marches his way through the walls, ignoring the voices of his siblings behind him. Their worried voices have become almost nothing on his ears. He’s too numb. Last time he’d died had been fine. Sure it sucked, dying is kinda a pain in the ass. But at least no one had seen it, at least he didn’t have to force his siblings to watch him bleed out on the floor. 

His mind echoes with the words of the girl he always seemed to encounter when he went to the Great Beyond,  _ They need you. _

They hadn’t needed him before. Why would they need him now?

He’s stopped in his tracks by a hand on his shoulder, pressing hard. He turns around to see Diego, eyes softer than he’s ever seen before. Diego swallows something, probably the last vestiges of whatever stutter that’s forming in his throat, “Klaus. I..”

“It’s not like it hasn’t happened before,” Klaus blurts out, to Diego’s surprise. His brother’s hand drops off his shoulder and to his left, Ben quickly shakes his head with disappointment. 

“This has happened before?” Vanya asks, moving to stand near Diego. Her eyes are wide and weepy, reminding him of a deer. Her skin has managed to get even paler than it was before, her eyes shadowed by something dark. She looks more ghostly than Ben does, but not by much.

Klaus nods, too shaken by the looks on their faces to lie and pretend this is all ok, because it’s not. He’d  _ died.  _ In front of his siblings. And honestly, that part bothered him more than the actual fact that he hadn’t been breathing for several minutes.

“Yea,” Luther says suddenly, jarring Klaus out of his thoughts, How he’d forgotten Luther was standing there. he had no idea. His brother’s presence was massive. Both Diego and Vanya turn to look at him.

“You knew?” Vanya’s voice lifts with hysteria, “You knew Klaus died?”

Luther nods, tapping his fingers together in imitation of a child being berated by a parent, “Yea but.. I was high. I wasn’t sure until now. I thought it happened, but I don’t really remember…” He trails off when he spots the stormy face Diego has on.

“Sorry.”

Diego’s face darkens, but he doesn’t say anything else. His mouth moves however, but no words come out. Vanya watches him sadly, her whole frame shaking. Her hands trail down Klaus’s arm and he looks at her. Vanya’s eyes aren’t on him anymore, they’re on a thin line he hadn’t even noticed before down his arm. 

_ Her powers,  _ His mind whispers, remembering the blistering pain of the white spike through his chest. 

“I’m sorry,” Luther says into the silence, voice thick and hesitant. Nobody looks at him.

Diego sighs, letting go of Klaus’ shoulder, “We need to talk about this. With everyone.” He pauses, thinking, “The kids too. We need a plan, we can’t stay here. We’re putting them in danger.”

Luther shuffles awkwardly in the corner, “I’ll ask Five about it.” Vanya looks up from her absent staring at the mention of Five’s name, her hands dropping to her sides. 

“I’ll ask Five,” She says with a strained tone, “But…” With the hesitation present in her tone, they all stare at her, “I don’t know where he went.”

“He left,” answers Luther, voice stronger, “To go help Allison.”

That’s not why he left, and they all know it. The truth hangs in the air above their heads waiting for one of them to grasp at it. No one does. Instead, Klaus stretches one of his arms above his head and yawns, “Dying is hard work,” He says, trying to make light of the situation, “I’m exhausted.”

It really doesn’t work to lessen the tension. Diego’s hand floats back to Klaus’ shoulder and Vanya goes somehow paler. Luther shifts in the hallway, eyes darting back and forth before muttering something about checking on their kid selves and leaving.

Now it’s just Ben, Diego, Klaus and Vanya in the hall. 

Klaus moves first, headed straight for the small room that the older Hargreeves have taken over for the time being, followed closely by Vanya and Diego. Ben floats ahead of them, casually looking around corners before they pass through. It’s supposed to be subtle, but Klaus knows exactly what he’s doing, looking for more gunmen. 

It’s somewhat of a comfort. 

With his siblings pressing at his back, Klaus heads into the bedroom, ready to collapse and never move again. His whole body aches and hurts, probably some way for the little girl to get revenge on him for interrupting her afterlife. 

He falls into the comforter, ready to relax and sleep his worries away, when the soft clinking of knives falls next to him and even with his eyes closed, he knows it’s Diego. Another warm body follows, warmer than Diego’s constantly cold one and curls around itself. Vanya.

Klaus drifts.

He’s not sure how long he lays there, his siblings with him. But he knows the instant the door slams open and Five speaks, urgency in his voice, that he wouldn't be able to sleep very much that night.

“Dad took Klaus!”

* * *

Five wishes he was back in the apocalypse.

To be more accurate, he wants to be anywhere but here. Logically, he knows he doesn’t want t be there, in the end of the world. He’s happier with his siblings around him, with the people he’s been fighting for, for basically his whole life, alive and breathing and… not dead.

Not dead.

Like Klaus was.

Or wasn’t.

It’s a bit confusing and muddled and Five didn’t want to think about because if he did then he would begin to see the flames and smell the smoke and listen to the sound of his own head thudding in his ears and…

“Five?” says a soft voice he hasn’t heard before and he opens his eyes. 

Vanya is standing there, staring at him, her heart in her eyes and twisting her skirt in her hands. He doesn’t know her, he never knew Vanya at this age, age seventeen. But she doesn’t know him either, the fifty-eight year old person who survived an apocalypse that she would cause. 

It’s in this moment that he realizes that she doesn’t know that, all she sees is his thirteen year old body and believes him to be the brother who left her all alone. 

“Vanya,” he says, hating how strained his voice sounds. She smiles at him, motioning next to him, “Can I sit?”

He nods distantly and waits for her to seat herself down next to him. He doesn’t look at her, but he can feel her eyes on him, soft and quiet. 

He almost shrieks when she places a hand on him. Instead, he flinches, a whole body shudder. Vanya quickly pulls her hands away, lip trembling and seeming more than a bit shaken at his reaction. Of course, she is, she has every right to be. 

He’s not the same. 

He keeps his eyes on the scene in front of him as the younger Hargreeves slowly pick up the shrapnel and other products of the battle off of the floor, with supervision from Mom, of course. Normally, Vanya would be helping them too, despite the fact that she had barely done that much in the battle, but she’s too preoccupied with him at the moment.

With him. 

“Do you hate me?” Vanya asks him, whispery and gentle. His heart stops.

“What?” He asks, meeting her eyes in bewilderment, “Why would you think that?”

“You..” she murmurs, “You left.”

He stares at her, shaken out of his mopiness in pure confusion. He can hear the word missing in her sentence, something she’s too afraid to say out loud.  _ You left me. _

In her book, she’d called him her closest confidant. Her best friend. The only one who didn’t care about the numbers or the powers. But when he’d read all of the pretty words about himself in her book, all he’d felt was anger and shame. He wasn’t perfect as Vanya had written him to be.

“I didn’t want to,” was all he could manage. 

Vanya’s gaze hardens, “Yes, you did. You wanted to walk out that door.”

“I also wanted to come back,” Five moves to get and get away from her, he’s already dealing with the fallout of Klaus’ apparent immortality and the fact that the Commission was able to track him all the way here, he doesn’t need more pain on his shoulders, “You don’t understand the circumstances.”

“Then tell me, explain to me,” Vanya’s face is steely and he wonders if she took her pills this morning. She grabs his hand and tries to pull him back down next to her. He obliges, settling back down.

“My powers were depleted, I couldn’t time travel home,” He sighs, and edges away from her, “I didn’t mean to stay as long as I did.”

Vanya swallows and then says the thing he knows she’s been wanting to ask him this entire time.

“Why didn’t you come back to me? When I was thirteen. Why’d you go to..” She trails off, not knowing the year that her future self was from.

“2019?” finishes Five for her, only glancing at her. She nods, “Yea, 2019. Why’d you stay there with them instead of trying to come home?”

Five blinks at her, having absolutely forgotten that none of the older Hargreeves have even bothered to inform the younger ones of anything that had happened, probably due to fear of their father. Vanya doesn’t know anything about the apocalypse, about him, about her powers, nothing.

_ She thinks he time traveled to the future and decided to never come back. _

He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to make that one better at all. After all, he’s not the best with emotions and talking. Five’s stuck.

He absolutely hates the feeling it has over him with his little sister staring at him and waiting for a reply that he can’t give to her without possibly screwing up the timeline more than he has already. Vanya grumbles from next to him and stands, “I knew it.” 

His head jerks up to look at her and for the first time, he sees the hot angry tears dribbling down her cheeks, “We were your family, Five.” And with that she walks away, back down to the where the other younger Hargreeves were still cleaning. Five watches her go, feeling smaller than he ever had, even when being carried by Luther.

He wishes he could tell her, he really does. But there’s no way to tell her anything that’s going on without ruining the timeline. And that’s what's most important, making sure his siblings have a future in the first place, that isn’t the endless piles of rubble and the stench of death.

He leans back and runs a hand down his face, tired of existing and wishing he could just solve all his problems with a simple equation. 

Vanya’s back to helping the others pick up the pieces of the broken chandelier and other things scattered around. He notices them all avoiding the puddle of blood that Klaus had been laying in, with good reason. He’d avoid it too if he was cleaning up.

His eyes glance over each of them, counting them off and making sure they’re all there and not gone, like Klaus had been. It’s a habit he’s picked up after a while, counting off his sibling to make sure they’re all in one are and not running off like dizzy pigeons.

He pauses when he reaches the number four.

_ Where’s Klaus? _

Five gets up from his position perched on one of the many armchairs thrown around by the constant fighting and begin the search for his brother, not worried per say but concerned that Klaus might’ve got off to go drown himself in drugs or booze to get rid of the image of himself dead on the floor. Five could relate to that feeling,if the younger kids weren't here he would be drinking a bunch of alcohol.

None of them look at him while he’s teleporting through the halls, checking every room with the expert skills he’s honed looking for supplies in the apocalypse. 

About mid-way through his search, he runs into Allison. The Older Allison, who blinks at him in confusion before she realizes that he’s panicking. She instantly comes over to him, and wraps her arms around his shoulders, her face concerned and soft, Five almost throws her off, but instead just sighs and takes her arms off of him.

Her face is pinched with worry and even if she can’t say the word, he knows what she’s asking. 

_ What’s wrong? _

“Younger Klaus is missing,” He says, voice distant, “and so is Dad.”

He doesn’t know if Allison’s exactly been informed on everything that happened while she was out kicking ass or whatever, but judging from her reaction, a sharp flinch and horrified grunt, she’s thinking the same thing he is.

“Dad took Klaus!”

* * *

The car isn’t silent, per say, because cars normally weren’t, but with his dad giving him the most interested look he’s ever been given in his whole life, everything seems a lot quieter. 

For as long as Klaus has been around he’s known a couple of things that were pretty much concrete, drugs were the only way to get rid of the voices in your head, his father is always going to be a dingbat and Klaus is the last in usefulness in his father’s eyes, only just above Vanya. 

The arrival of their future selves had changed all that. Except the part about his dad being a dingbat. That was pretty much set in stone. But, suddenly so many things had changed with the arrival of these people that Klaus really didn’t know where to begin. He should probably start with the fact that he was most likely immortal.

Yea, that seems like a good place to start. 

At least he has Ben with him to help him figure this whole thing out. Ben’s always been a lot smarter than Klaus is. And right now, a level head is what he needs.

Well, what he should be using. Cause Ben is absolutely panicking right now.

“Klaus, you have to get out of here! You have to! Otherwise, Dad’s going to  _ kill you.  _ You saw his face when your future self came back from the dead, He has this crazy idea that you can do that too! Klaus, please do something! Jump out of the car, PLEASE!  _ I don’t know if you can do that too, please get away from him.” _

He can do it too, Klaus wants to tell him, to reassure him and make Ben stop floundering around, but if he’s honest, he’s not really sure if he can. His future self is what, thirty-something?, and is apparently sober and has had almost a decade to get used to the abilities that Klaus still barely has a grip on. Plus, he’s really cool.

Reginald narrows his eyes and then says, “Do not try and escape, Number Four, It will not do any good for any of us in the long run.”

“What do you mean?” asks Klaus, mouth dry and voice cracking.

Reginald doesn’t exactly smile down at him, but it’s the closest that Klaus has ever seen him get to one, “The fall will hurt you, and no one knows where you are. Either way my theory will be tested, one way is more painful than the other.”

As he leans forward to get close to Klaus’ face, he’s hit with the image of himself, laying on the road as his father proceeds to run him over with a car.

“Let’s make this as simple for the both of us as possible.” Reginald hums.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will the older Hargreeves manage to figure out where Klaus and Reginald are headed? Will the Younger Hargreeves managed to get over their fear of their father to HELP?
> 
> Will I ever write a fic that I actually have a plan for?  
Will I get get better at PACING?
> 
> Find out next time!


	12. away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace can't help, Klaus goes to a familiar place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! 
> 
> This chapter isn't the best and I'll admit that, but I wrote most of it while sleep-deprived so eh. 
> 
> The reason this took so long is because I decided to take a slight mental health break and then right after that got trapped in writer's block. Sorry!!
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

Really with the way that the Umbrella Academy normally operates, it should’ve taken them a lot longer to rally the troops and scuttle out the door and after their father. But it didn’t take them long at all. In fact, it was almost comical how fast they moved, considering the entirety of the week-that-must-not-be-named had been consumed by meandering and general confusion.

The second after Five had raised the alarm, the Hargreeves were tearing through the mansion. Instincts from childhood ingrained in their bones snapping back into their weary brains, most of them scooped up the nearest weaponry and charged down the halls. Which lead to a very confused muddle of people in the living room, all clutching different antiques in their hands.

Younger Allison dropped the candlestick she was holding, “Five? I thought.” Her eyes dart around the room, clearly looking for more of the Cleaners. When she doesn’t spy any, she glares at Five, “Why…”

“Klaus has been taken!” Five shouts wildly, his hair mussed up and eyes dilated. To some of the more sleepy Hargreeves, he’s only a blur because of his rapid movements. Diego blinks chunks of sleep out of his eyes.

“Klaus is right here?” Younger Luther says, looking at Older Klaus’ outfit with apprehension. Klaus winks at his brother, just as Five loses the rest of his composure, “Dad took Klaus to someplace to test if he can come back from the dead!”

It’s one of those moments that makes one wonder whether all the kids born on the first of October secretly share some genes, because all the Hargreeves make the same ‘O’ formation with their mouths, before exploding into a loud cacophony of noise.

“Why did he..”

“Who the fuck does”

“Why didn’t you say..”

“Five, if you..”

Someone clears their throat in the middle of the noise, hesitant and quiet and it’s glanced over the chaos of the moment as Five and both Luthers try to keep everyone calm, but really only contribute to the noise. The noise comes louder and louder, more pronounced until the people responsible are practically hacking. They all turn to see Allison standing there, glaring at them.

She lifts up a notebook that’s now old and slightly battered from use that only reads, “Where is Dad taking him?”

Something about the fact that they now have a sister who cannot contribute to the Hargreeves family feud silences all of them until Younger Luther admits, “We don’t know. Dad marched him out about an hour ago.”

“An  _ hour? _ ” Diego asks, his voice tinny, “Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

All the teens shuffle their feet and look at the floor. Diego glares a bit harsher at them, trying to weasel out an answer before Luther speaks up, “We need to find him, before Dad…” Luther chokes on the idea before spitting it out, “hurts him.” He finishes reluctantly, his shoulder slumping. Vanya bits her lip nearby and looks away.

“How?” asks Younger Allison, sticking up her lip the way she did when she was going to rumor someone out of lying, “We have no idea where he went and he took Pogo with him.” The look on her face was strained as she thought about how much easier it would’ve been for all of them if she could just rumor Pogo.

All of their faces fall as they realize that they have no idea how to track where their father is taking Klaus. Younger Vanya even lets a couple of tears fall down her cheeks, even if she quickly wipes them away.

“Everything alright here, children?” asks the warm voice of their mother and they all jump at the noise, turning to see her with a feather duster in hand and a red-lipped smile. Diego manages to shake his head at her and she’s at his side in an instant, “What’s the matter, darling?”

“Dad’s hurting Klaus,” He says to her, unsure. Grace blinks at him and smiles, wiping his hair out of his face, “It’s just training, darling. Klaus will be ok.” The other kids freeze as Diego turns his head slowly to stare at his mom, mouth twitching in horror.

“M..m..m…”

“Just picture the word in your mind,” She says softly, leaning her forehead against his in a gesture of warmth. Diego numbly shakes his head against hers, mussing his hair up. 

“Mom,” Says Klaus, speaking for the first time since he’d heard the news about his abducted younger self, “Dad took my younger self somewhere and we think it’s possible that Dad could be planning to...” He trails off, but shakes his head, “kill him.” His body quivers slightly and Younger Diego presses a hand on his back. 

Grace laughs, a light and tinkly sound that’s made a hundred times darker in the context of what they are discussing. Her head is thrown back and she smiles a bit wider, “Your father can not do that.”

“What’s stopped him before?” Younger Allison questions, her eyebrows arched neatly. Grace shakes her head and releases Diego, “It’s not within his abilities to.”

“Abilities?” Luther blinks, remembering the time his father had injected him with monkey serum with absolutely no qualms whatsoever. Grace hums in affirmation, “Your father has certain restrictions. He can not injure fatally.”

All of them stare at her in confusion and the perky smile that had remained on her face throughout the whole conversation fell off, “What?”

“Yes, he can,” Klaus says suddenly, eyes darting to the side, “He killed himself remember?”

Both Five and Luther nod, but everyone else turns to stare at him.

_ What? _

* * *

The car’s AC is blasting so cold that Klaus has to resist the urge to turn on the seat warmer just to feel his ass again. But he’s now trapped underneath the withering and silent gaze of his father, staring him down as Pogo drives him to the end of his life.

And Klaus knows it’s the end of his life because God knows what else he would be doing here.

Ben’s whispering again, “Klaus you have to leave. Klaus..”

Klaus shakes his head at his brother, “I can’t leave.”

“No you can not,” agrees his father with a tap of his monocle. Klaus shoots him a glare and crosses his arms over his chest, “You don’t get to interject on my conversations after kidnapping me.”

“It is not kidnapping,” His father replies with a sigh, “You are my child.”

“If that’s what helps you sleep at night then keep on telling yourself that,” Klaus sniffs back at him, much to his father’s displeasure. 

Ben slides into the seat next to his brother, when he realizes that Klaus isn’t going anywhere, muttering “If he even sleeps at all.”

Despite the tense circumstances and the mood of the car, Klaus can’t help but snort. Reginald doesn’t react with a smile or a softening of the eyes like his siblings would, only raising an eyebrow at Klaus before ignoring him entirely. 

Actually, maybe he isn’t too far off. 

Klaus’s hands twist around each other, his head bowed down as he awaits his fate. He can hear every breath rattling in his chest and it’s the most painful sound he’s ever heard. Ben’s aura gets a bit closer.

“Klaus, you can’t just give up.”

Ben’s voice is worried and Klaus can’t help wanting to get that tone out of his brother’s voice. He looks up to Ben’s dark eyes and strained face and mouths, “I don’t know what to do.”

It’s scary to admit that out loud. Even if Klaus isn’t the smartest of the Hargreeves, that’s Five, or the strongest, Luther, he is the most adaptable. Though it’s mostly due to his frequent drug runs rather than any sort of skill he learned from being in the academy, Klaus knows how to adjust. It’s what’s kept him alive for as long as he has been, although that trend is evidently about to end.

Ben’s voice murmurs again, “You need to come up with something, Klaus. You can’t die.”

It’s eerily similar to something he’d heard when his older self had died. The echoes of a youthful voice he hadn’t been able to clearly recognize, but still knew in the back of his mind. His older self’s ghost flickering and giving him cheesy thumbs-ups like he wasn’t buried in the grasp of his sobbing siblings and watching his own blood pool onto the floor.

Klaus’s eyes dart to the side of the car that his father is seated on, eyeing the small tray that always comes with the limos their dad owns. Most of the time, those trays have the Umbrella Academy masks or some knives, but this time there is an ominous black and silver case. It sorta looks like the bulky piece of shit Diego’s knives are stored in, but this one is more elegant, refined and somehow, Klaus knows it’s the thing that’s going to kill him.

He takes the deepest breath of air he’s ever taken in before and wonders if this is the last time he’ll ever feel the cold against his teeth.

Ben speaks again, “Five just discovered that you’re gone.” He says it like it’s some miracle, but all Klaus can feel is dread.

If they know, it’s only a matter of time before his idiotic siblings manage to find some stupid deus ex machina way to track him down. 

They’ll see his body.

And the last thing Klaus ever wants is to see the looks on his siblings’ faces when they do.

He’s already seen it twice and he never wants to be the reason that his siblings collapse against each other and scream until their throats are raw and they’re all out of liquid in bodies to keep crying.

Klaus’ breath must hitch at the thought because Reginald speaks suddenly, “Not to worry Number Four. If my predictions are correct, then your immortality powers have already manifested. This is a simple test, nothing more.”

Klaus stares at him, fear laced in his throat and anger in his eyes, He wants to scream, scream at his father all the questions in his mind, but finds he can’t open his own mouth in horror.

_ Why are you risking the life of a child on predictions? Why are you risking the life of  _ ** _your _ ** _ child on predictions? _

_ How are you so ok with doing this? _

It’s when his father looks casually at the scenery outside that Klaus has the epiphany that in the eyes of Sir Reginald Hargreeves, this is simply just another day. 

* * *

“Dad killed himself?”

“Dad wouldn’t…

“Actually…. He might’ve.”

“Diego!”

“What?!”

“GUYS!” Klaus yells exasperated as the amount of noise in the room rises to a breaking point. His voice echoes in the halls of the mansion, echoing. All of them turn to look at him with wide eyes and even some tears. Klaus drops his arms and gives his siblings a sheepish grin, “I didn’t actually think you’d all listen to me. Uh.”

Allison takes the opportunity of silence to raise her notepad, it reads, “We need to figure out where they’re going.”

“Mom’s no use,” agrees Vanya, ignoring the glare Diego shoots her, “We can’t ask her.” 

Younger Allison rolls her eyes and settles herself down on the couch, “If anyone’s going to have any idea where Dad is taking Klaus, wouldn’t you be the one?”

“I..,” Klaus stammers, processing her words, “Yes, I guess.”

Five stares him down, his green eyes slanted and dangerous, “You better figure it out.”

“Well, it’s kinda hard to think when my baby brother is threatening me,” Klaus shoots back with venom, “So thanks for that.” Five’s eyes narrow to slits but he says nothing more, instead slumping a bit. Younger Vanya tries to pat him on the back, but he simply moves away and begins to pace. Luther’s eyes are on him, moving back and forth as Five grinds a trail into the floor.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” he asks Klaus with a soft hesitant smile. It’s a sweet gesture, Klaus supposes, but also terribly hamfisted since Klaus has no idea what is even happening at all at this point.

Ben suddenly speaks from beside him, “Klaus, is it possible for you to manifest me?”

“I don’t know,” Klaus murmurs carefully, head falling down onto his chin, “I could try.”

“It’s just for a second,” said Ben with a warm smile, “I have an idea.”

Klaus inhales and pulls on the sharp, almost blue string in his chest and rips it in half, letting the blue light wash over him. When the pain is over, the blue glow pulses from his hands and Ben’s body becomes tangible and present next to him. 

He watches his siblings all tense up at the sight of their brother, the stress on their faces building up and then crashing down as Ben began to speak, “I don’t really have that much time, so I'll keep it brief. We need to track down Klaus.”

“And how do you suggest we do that?” snaps Diego, somehow the first one to recover at the sight of Ben, “We have no idea where Dad’s taking him.”

“You don’t need to know,” says Ben icily with an eyebrow raise, “Klaus knows already.”

“I do?”

“He does?”

“Yes,” Ben says, turning around to look at Klaus, “He’s taking you to the Lone Tree.”

Klaus doesn’t need to look in a mirror to feel all the color drain out of his face and the blue light flickers out and disappears, taking Ben with it. The others come towards him, faces concerned as Klaus sways suddenly, collapsing back down onto the couch. 

He keeps his eyes closed and feels a hand fall onto his head. 

Diego’s voice speaks, far off, “I can hotwire some cars for us to get to wherever Lone Tree is, but some people should stay here.”

“What! No!,” says another voice, similar to Diego’s but younger. “We all need to go after Dad and Klaus. It’s going to need all of us.”

“I’m not so sure about that Diego,” another voice replies, “Maybe it would be smart to leave some people behind, just in case.”

“Why are you taking his side over mine, Luther?” spits Younger Diego. Klaus can hear Luther’s feet awkwardly shuffle on the floor, “Because..”

“Oh for Christ’s sake,” snarls Five’s voice, “We’re all going.” An angry stomping noise is heard before a hand shaking Klaus awake. When he finally pulls open his eyes, he can see Five’s face staring down at him. He smiles up at his brother, “Need something.”

“Yes,” Five says with a pinch of his eyebrows, “What is Lone Tree and why does Ben know about it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Time: Some stuff actually happens.


	13. buried

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THEY ACTUALLY GO TO THE CEMETERY BECAUSE of PLOT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously don't know what to put here? Like what am i supposed to talk about? Nothing interesting has happened??
> 
> My hair's blond now? I got a new phone? No one cares about that.
> 
> Anyways enjoy!

When Klaus was younger, he hated everything about Lone Tree Cemetery. Absolutely everything. The smell of the damp air, the words etched on the graves, every blade of grass and every wandering spirit, he hated them all. When his father had eventually given up on Klaus and his hidden ‘potential’ he had been flooded with nothing but relief.

He’d thought he’d never see Lone Tree Cemetery again. 

Except now, fifteen years later and four years later simultaneously, Klaus found himself in the back of a run-down minivan, squashed next to a group of teenagers that he knew and didn’t know and heading to the place that he’d lost his mind in.

“Can we turn up the radio?” asks Luther, his nose slightly scrunched. 

Five’s head twitches slightly to look back at him, “No.”

Luther puffs out an angry huff, obviously upset at the lack of music. Internally, Klaus agrees with his tiny brother. Playing music, especially Justin Timberlake, feels wildly inappropriate. Five flips the left signal on with a sigh. 

Vanya shifts next to him, her head turned out the window and eyes bloodshot. She refuses to even glance in Five’s direction and Klaus wonders what kind of interaction they must’ve had to drive Vanya to refuse to interact with her best friend. Probably not good, if Five’s clenched jaw was any indication.

“Maybe we should turn up the music, “ Klaus suggests to Five, with a lightness in his voice that he’s definitely not feeling internally. Five shoots him an annoyed eyeball that Klaus finds to be much less intimidating than he probably should.

It’s probably the looming presence of Lone Tree Cemetery on the horizon.

Either way, Klaus isn’t exactly feeling great about heading to is childhood torture place. You know, all the trauma and stuff. At least he’s had a bit of time to distance himself from it all. (seventeen years to be exact, plus ten months of actual healing with Dave) he can’t even imagine what his younger self was feeling. 

Actually, he can, because he’s feeling it currently. Even Dave’s warm touch can’t erase it all.

The radio interrupts JT’s lovely voice with a sharp staticky crackle and a slight noise as the communicators snap into place. Klaus has no idea how Pogo managed to connect the minivan and the other car Diego’s driving together, but he’s not going to question it. Too many crazy things have been happening at this point for him to question anything anymore.

He’s actually surprised that the younger kids aren’t going into shock at this point, especially Mini-Vanya after his Vanya had displayed her powers. Maybe she’s just elected to ignore it. It seems like a typical Hargreeves thing to do.

Luther’s gruff voice cut into the silence, “Klaus where do we go next?”

“Left,” Klaus responds immediately, before backtracking, “Or maybe right. Not sure. Most of the time I was high when I was headed there.”

“Not helpful Klaus,” grunts Diego through the radio, “Can you figure it out?”

“Yea. yea,” Klaus sits up and looks out the front window. The trees on either side of the road don’t look that familiar at all. His head turns back to the radio, still keeping the scenery in mind, “I don’t recognize...”

Vanya pipes up from the back, “Take a left.”

They all turn to stare at her. Her face flushes bright red and she hides behind a very thick book. Klaus recognizes it as a travel map. She must’ve been reading it to let herself relax. He flashes her a thumbs-up as Five hits the gas, jerking the car forward. A faint smile flashed across her face before disappearing, evaporating in the sun. Ben sighs from next to Klaus, a sigh that’s tired and strained.

Klaus can relate.

Five speaks to the others through the radio, explaining to them that all they have to do is follow the car he’s driving. They agree easily, but Klaus can hear the laced concern in their tones and forces himself to remain calm. The kids are in the car with him right now, he can’t panic. If he panics, they panic and it can only go downhill from there. 

He can’t allow himself to even think that they might be too late.

If he does begin to think that way, then it would show in his stance and the Umbrella Academy was raised to sniff out fear on others. Like a tank of rabid animals, they’d latch onto it, absorb and react. 

And the last thing they needed right now was the adrenaline of everything crashing and burning, the panic setting in and a group of even more traumatized teens on their hands. 

Five’s foot pressed slowly harder down on the gas, a movement that Klaus could feel just based on the velocity of the minivan. No one commented on it and Klaus could see Diego’s car behind them, maintaining a steady pace so evidently, he didn’t have a problem with their thirteen-year-old brother leading the charge up to Lone Tree Cemetery.

Ben vanishes suddenly from beside him, something he’s been doing every few minutes to check on mini-Klaus. Apparently, he can jump to the other Ben’s location, which is both stupid and convenient. When he comes back, his eyes aren’t panicked yet but his expression is tense.

“He’s not dead yet,” Ben says to Klaus, keeping his tone bland in an attempt to ease the panic.

Klaus nods numbly and relays the message to the others, who respond with grunts or slow blinks. He supposes that’s the best response he could’ve gotten in the circumstances, turning back to Ben. 

“What is Dad doing?” he asks Ben, partially interested and partially horrified at the prospect of knowing exactly how their father is going to test younger Klaus’ immortality. Ben’s jaw twitches but he responds with the same bland tone, “I couldn’t see him.”

* * *

For all his bravado and drug-induced confidence, Klaus is willing to admit that the only thing that could sober him up so quickly was Lone Tree Cemetery.

The painful three-hour drive was only the tip of the iceberg. Lone Tree was the only cemetery for miles which meant to most people that their loved ones would always be buried there, but for Klaus all it meant was that the ghosts that mobbed him when he entered the gates were sometimes related. 

Also that there were a lot of them.

Like.. hundreds.

It was safer in the arctic tundra of a car than it was out in the open so when Reginald Hargreeves opened the door to pull Klaus out of the car, he immediately clapped his hands over his ears in pain. The wails and shrieks of the Lone Tree ghosts deafened him with their cacophony and Klaus was too busy making sure he wasn’t going to lose his hearing to notice that his father was tugging him across the gravelly floor towards the entrance of the cemetery.

His elbow dug into the rocks and he hissed in pain through his teeth as a wound opened but still managed to keep his hands over his ears. 

The pain was soon forgotten as they crossed over the threshold of the cemetery gates and the ghosts now had free reign. Klaus’ vision went white-blue with the sheer amount of spirits that surrounded them and had to close his eyes from the pain. It slightly reminded him of Future Vanya’s apparent powers.

He couldn’t hear Ben.

The lack of his dead brother’s voice hurt the most and Klaus managed a wretched sob, before immediately shutting his mouth with the rise in volume as the ghosts roared.

Reginald only tugged harder, past the gravestones, past the ghosts, past the grassy hills of the almost acre big cemetery and towards a stone-cold building that haunted Klaus’ childhood. The mausoleum stood, tall and proud, unknowingly holding the key to Klaus’ demise.

The door was tugged open and before Klaus could even scream, he was shoved inside. The sudden movement jarred his hands away from his ears and he couldn’t help the squeak that erupted from his throat at the sudden burst of sound from the ghosts outside.

His father stood in the entrance od the door, the light framing him. Klaus almost sobbed out loud at how the light formed his father as some sort of angelic being. 

But even if the light was mocking him, Klaus still didn’t want it to go.

The door slammed shut and Klaus was lost in darkness, while his father went outside to unpack his son-murdering tools, among other things.

What’s the saying? When the cat’s away, the mice will play. 

When the light was swallowed by the darkness, the mausoleum ghosts rose out of their graves, dead eyes threatening and anger palpable. Kaus gave them a winning smile, hands back in their sadly familiar place back on his ears.

“What’s up guys, long time no see?”

The ghost that Klaus had nicknamed, “Ass Tornado” to try and get rid of the fear that came with his appearance, screamed at him. His voice, loud and screechy, was one of the worst noises Klaus has ever heard, hence the nickname. Klaus’ hands clamped a bit tighter against his ears at the blast of noise. 

Ass Tornado came a bit closer, part of his face sliding through another ghost and her parasol. She didn’t even notice, only widening her mouth to scream at Klaus louder.

His hands buried in his hair and ears, Klaus could begin to feel the heat of tears fall down his cheeks. They dripped down but he couldn’t hear when they landed, the noise was so extreme.

Klaus fell onto his side and curled up into a ball as if making himself smaller would get rid of the pain. The ghosts got even closer to him, their hands grasping at him. Every time a hand went through he’d shiver until the ghosts got so close that Klaus couldn’t stop shaking. 

There was nothing he could do to stop them. He was powerless, useless, weak. His future self, the guy who’d winked at him and resurrected himself might’ve been able to get rid of the mob, but Klaus wasn’t capable of that yet and he knew it.

So instead he lay on the floor and waited for the sharp click of a gun.

* * *

Pulling up to a cemetery was simultaneously shocking and not shocking at all. Vanya had read the name on her travel map, she knew that Lone Tree Cemetery was the place Klaus had been babbling about, after all, there were no other places called Lone Tree very close by. But still, a cemetery?

When Five yanked the stick shift into park, it barely took him a second to immediately jump out of the minivan. Luther, who was in the shotgun seat, squeaked in alarm, still not used to his twin’s powers after his return. He recovered quickly, though with a bit of an embarrassed look on his face, tumbling out of the car after Five.

The others followed them outside, followed by older Klaus. Vanya swallowed down the last bit of her nerves and then made to get out after them, but was stopped by a scowl and a knife.

“Vanya,” says Diego, her Diego, not the older one in his leather and knives but her Diego in his uniform still bloody from the Cleaners’ blood. She nods stiffly, “Diego.”

“You should stay in the car,” He tells her, unknowingly shattering her heart. She takes a gulp of air, “What..”

His eyes are sympathetic but there’s something else there in his expression that she’s never seen before, “Vanya. You..you..you..” She watches him gulp in air as if trying to suppress his stutter, “You could’ve died earlier.” 

She’s suddenly aware of the ghost of the gun pressing against her head and the sound of a bullet hitting flesh. Vanya blinks, trying to rid herself of the sensation.

“I could’ve,” she agrees with Diego because that’s the best way to get him soft is to agree with him, “But I didn’t. And back then there were almost thirteen people and nine of us. Now there’s eleven of us and one of him, I think I’ll be fine.”

Diego grits his teeth but his hand drops to his side and he trudges away to the others, just as the other car pulls up. The rest of the older Hargreeves parade out, most of them with exhaustion lines on their faces. Vanya meets the eyes of her older self for a brief moment before pulling away. She’s still not sure how to feel about her, especially after what appeared to be a display of abilities Vanya could only dream of during the fight. 

And if that’s true then it means Vanya’s been lied to her entire life and everything she’s ever known has been a lie.

She can’t dwell on it, because if she does then she’s most likely going to start crying.

“It’s dark,” Older Luther says as if they don’t already know that. A two-hour battle plus a break before driving for three hours in a panic does tend to take up most of the day. Her Diego rolls his eyes, following her train of thought, “We can see that.”

Older Luther blinks at him before scrunching up his face, “What I was going to say is that it’ll be harder to find Klaus now. Nobody here has night vision as I recall.”

The tone of his voice is light as if he was trying to make a joke or something, but it falls completely flat. All the Hargreeves stare at him, some not even realizing it was a joke (Five, Younger Luther) and others just deciding to ignore it altogether (the Allisons, the Vanyas, the Diegos, Klaus). Luther claps his hands awkwardly, “Great! Klaus, do you know where Dad would’ve taken you?”

Klaus doesn’t answer, hands twitching and staring off into the distance. 

“Klaus?” Diego repeats, concerned. Klaus notices this time and jumps, eyes staring in Diego’s direction but not really seeing him. Diego cocks his head, “You good?”

“I’m great,” Klaus waves his hand in his direction, “I’m just peachy. What did you need?”

“To find out where Dad’s taking your younger self,” Diego replies, voice clam despite the circumstances. Vanya exhales shakily, nervously shifting from foot to foot. Klaus blinks slowly at Diego before nodding, “Over there.” He points through the darkness to something no one can actually see. 

Klaus’ finger drops after a second as he rapidly claps his hands over his ears with a sharp cry. Immediately, Older Allison is next to him, her hands on him and making sure that he’s ok. Her mouth moves up and down as if trying to whisper reassuring phrases to him, but she can’t.

Five frowns and blurts out, “Klaus are you sure that’s the direction. We can’t waste time going the wrong way, it’s now or never.”

Klaus doesn’t respond, but Five doesn’t seem too inclined to push him much further. His head turns towards the direction Klaus pointed and he stares, calculating the probability of it actually being the correct direction, most likely.

It’s actually her older self that comes up with a solution.

“Maybe we should send the majority in the direction Klaus pointed us in, but make sure there are other search parties too. That way we can cover a lot of ground and make sure that Klaus okay the fastest.”

The corners of Five’s lips turn up and he nods, “That’s a great idea, Van.” Vanya tries not to flinch at the familiar nickname, but can’t help the light feeling in her heart. Her older self grins back at him. 

Nobody makes a move after the decision, however, and Older Vanya’s grin fades a bit, “Aren’t we going to do..” She seems hesitant and Vanya is instantly flooded with relief, at least this older version of her isn’t entirely perfect. 

Older Allison nods at Vanya with a smile and a gesture that only makes Vanya more confused, “Wh..”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” snarls Older Diego, flipping open one of his knives, “You pick who’s going and who’s not. It was your idea.”

And there goes Vanya’s sense of self, down the drain, when her older self’s eyes sparkle with the acknowledgment of her siblings. The younger Hargreeves watch in interest when Vanya begins to rattle people off to go check the perimeter and people to go check where Klaus pointed them.

“Five, Me, and Younger Allison will check the perimeter.” 

Vanya scowls to herself.  _ I could’ve figured that out. Five covers the most ground, my future self has the strongest powers and Allison can easily rumor Dad. _

Her annoyance at her older self only gets stronger when everyone instantly agrees to her suggestion and she finds herself trailing behind the pack of her siblings to go find Klaus.

_ Remember,  _ her mind murmurs,  _ Klaus said that they don’t hate you.  _

_ Yea,  _ the darker part of her sneers back,  _ but he only said that after you got powers in the future.  _

Vanya seethes to herself, angry and confused and following her siblings into the dark like some sort of lovesick puppy. 

_ They only like me in the future because I’m the same as them,  _ She mutters to herself, watching her feet drag through the muddy grass,  _ They only like me because I’m part of their clique. _

Suddenly, she realizes that she can no longer hear her siblings marching along in front of her.

“Guys?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lil' Vanya all alone in the cemetery!!


End file.
